Confederate History and Heritage Month

OK, just to set the record straight, I am from the south. Although I grew up in the DC suburbs, I did live in Virginia, went to school in southwest Virginia, and my Mom, the greatest influence in my life is from southwest Virginia. My dad grew up in DC, but his father was from Georgia, so the southern influence is strong. My great-grandfather was an officer in the Army of Northern Virginia, and he was the first sheriff in Fanin County, Ga.

That being said, what exactly is Confederate Heritage? And why do we need Confederate History Month? They LOST the war, remember? I do not profess to be a student of the Civil War, my 'expertise' is European, paticularly English History before the 18th century. But I did watch several times Ken Burns excellent documentary 'The Civil War' as well as some family research. In defense of the Confederacy, the war didn't start to be about slavery, not really. It was economic as well as idealogical. I found this article to be quite informative, but if you google 'american civil war start' this will come up 1/2 way down the second page. The reason most people think the civil war started over slavery.

Slavery is a disgusting practice, but one that most countries have practiced in some form or another throught history. In medievel times, most victors of wars enslaved the population they conquered, in Europe and in Africa. The British were notorious in their slavery, a lot of the early US population were indentured servants, not slavery, but not far from it. The Brits also settled their newly acquired lands by sending over all their prisoners. Georgia was originally a penile colony, as was Austrialia. There had always been differences between the north and the south about slavery. The north was a more industrialized area, with more factories, therefore less dependance on manual labor. The south, with it's better climate, was more agricultural and therefore had a high demand for manual labor. And what better, cheaper way than slaves?

The South ceceeded from the Union due to their disagreements over states rights, a smaller central government but each state had more power. The northern states wanted more centralized governement, with a strong central government. I believe that, just like today, the press took the issue of slavery to the level that it attained. Lots of people wanted to outlaw slavery, and I believe it would have eventually burned itself out in the south as not economically feasible, but the press took it and ran with it. Lincoln didn't really want to free the slaves, but he eventually decided that that one issue became the problem. And not everyone in the south lived on a plantation and owned slaves. And there were slave owners in the north. And I don't seem to recall hearing anything about northern organizations assisting freed slaves in moving north and learn job skills, just Jim Crow laws and segregation.

So anyway, what exactly is Confederate Heritage? Sitting on the veranda drinking mint julips on a warm summer night, listening to bluegrass music? Magnolias and azeleas blooming in the spring? Football and NASCAR? Don't we have that anyway? On the opposite side, what is Union Heritage? We are all Americans now and should look at ourselves as Americans. We should celebrate our 'Amercian-ness' and not quibble over small, nonexistant things.