Taking offense at flags
- Thread starter LDB
- Start date
The overwhelming number of Southerners never participated in slavery nor derived any benefit from it. However, 100% of Southerners understood their land was being invaded by Northern armies.
The entire economy of the South was built on slavery. Everyone living and working in that economy benefited from it. Everyone. Southern armies didn't form to repel attacks from the North, they formed in order to fight for the right to keep their economy in tact.
The Southern economy wasn't some large monolithic unit synchronized to slave labor. Most Southerners were dirt poor farmers eeking out a subsistence living on a small parcel of land. Yes, textbooks depict large cotton or rice plantations with hundreds of slaves as being the norm. Broad scale slavery was an institution largely reserved to rich elites with depraved hearts.
That's like saying the Detroit economy wasn't some large monolithic unit synchronized to the auto industry. Of course it was. It wasn't 100% of the economy, but it 100% effected it. The King Cotton slave economy of 1800-1860 was huge, about as close to a monolithic unit as is possible. It not only was the foundation of the economy in the South, it was a significant portion of the foundation of the world's economy.
Don't confuse most southerners with Appalachia. While the large plantations represent only about 5% of white southerners, less than 40% of white southerners owned no slaves at all. Most did, even if just one or two. The dirt poor farmers in the South managed to eek out a pretty good living, especially those who grew cotton, as cotton was extremely profitable regardless. And as the northern economy moved from agrarian to industrial with farmers leaving the fields for the factories, Southern crops of all kinds became even more profitable.
As uncomfortable as it may be for southerners to look back on it honestly and own it, the simple fact is there wasn't even remotely enough white people in the South who were willing to do the grueling work in the fields to sustain the economy, and as a result, slavery had a stranglehold on the South, and everyone in it.
In 1900, the average life expectancy in the US was 47 years. Despite all of our progress, life in the 1800's was short, nasty and brutish. Most Americans in that era were in survival mode. The accumulation of wealth largely fell to industrialists and entrepreneurs. During the 1800's, the South was mostly agrarian and much less industrialized than Northern states. In a word, the South was poor. Really, really poor. The average Southerner was illiterate, uneducated and lucky to earn a living which would support a family. Bartering played a big role in daily life as cash was not easily obtained. If one-third of today's Southerners live in poverty, how much worse must those numbers have been in the 1800's? To say most white Southerners owned slaves is a gargantuan mischaracterization. It wasn't economically possible. Unfortunately, too many Americans live with the impression that the Tara estate in Margaret Mitchell's "Gone With The Wind" was how the typical Southern home appeared. It wasn't. Most Southerners lived in ramshackle conditions, worked hard, then died.
Being the good ole southern boy that I am I have always liked the motif of the Confederate flag I wore one on my biker vest also had a bandana with a confederate flag tied to the fork of my bike until one day a black friend of mine saw the patch on my chest and said wow Billy I didn't know you were like that, I then proceeded to tell him Hey it's not what you think and he kept saying I didn't know you were like that. I felt like a real piece of crap so I took out my Buck 110 knife and cut the patch off my vest and cut the bandana off my forks.
Although I still like the flag I don't display it out off respect for those who would be offended.
The
End.
Although I still like the flag I don't display it out off respect for those who would be offended.
The
End.
Tennesseahawk
Veteran Expediter
Screw those who would be offended. Most who are have nothing to do with the flag or the south. I have nothing to do with it, other than I hate seeing people just going nuts about wanting their opinions upheld at any cost.
One flag that does influence me, the Stars and Stripes, has had a lot of innocent blood spilled on her by our precious government. I refuse to fly it until it gets cleansed. People might want to look at our present flag, instead of dwelling over something from the past, that really has no power, other than what those with fake outrage are willing to give it.
One flag that does influence me, the Stars and Stripes, has had a lot of innocent blood spilled on her by our precious government. I refuse to fly it until it gets cleansed. People might want to look at our present flag, instead of dwelling over something from the past, that really has no power, other than what those with fake outrage are willing to give it.
On the website Project Gutenberg, [free online books], there are a great many "Slave Narratives", recorded by volunteers from numerous states. I've read a good many of them, and few of the slaves lived in circs anything like the fictional Tara - most were owned by poor people, some truly dirt poor. What surprised me were the many fond memories, mixed in with the expected horrors. Well worth reading, IMO.
I think people should be free to display the Confederate flag, if they wish, but as Turtle noted, many younguns have no idea of it's history or significance, and they should. I do not think any government entity has any business displaying it.
And displaying it publicly, as part of your clothing, will get you fired from your job.
http://www.postandcourier.com/artic...icer-fired-for-posing-in-rebel-flag-underwear
http://www.postandcourier.com/artic...icer-fired-for-posing-in-rebel-flag-underwear
If you're a burger flipper, probably not, but as a North Charleston cop, yeah.