The neo-Rebel
revisionism spouted by Southern bigots is easily debunked by a simple
review of primary sources from the Confederacy, such as official documents
and eyewitness accounts. Among the favorite bits of disinformation modern-day
racists like to push is that Confederates "weren't really racist"
and that their motivation was not a desire to preserve slavery, but to
defend the worthy principle of "states rights."
Vitually none of these boneheads have ever read the Articles of Secession
written by the leaders of several rebel states (or else they're avoiding
them). These documents --modeled after the Declaration of Independence--
were carefully written by Rebel leaders to clearly and publicly explain
their reasons for secession. The authors hoped that they would give them
legal legitimacy in the eyes of other nations whose official recognition
the Confed's sought for their new "nation."
So, here are the reasons given by the Rebels themselves as to why
they chose treason against the U.S.A:
Opening paragraph, Mississippi Declaration of Secession:
Our position is thoroughly identified with the institution of slavery--
the greatest material interest of the world. Its labor supplies the product
which constitutes by far the largest and most important portions of commerce
of the earth. These products are peculiar to the climate verging on the
tropical regions, and by an imperious law of nature, none but the black
race can bear exposure to the tropical sun.
Opening paragraph, Georgia Declaration of Secession:
The people of Georgia having dissolved their political connection with
the Government of the United States of America, present to their confederates
and the world the causes which have led to the separation. For the last
ten years we have had numerous and serious causes of complaint against
our non-slave-holding confederate States with reference to the subject
of African slavery.
From the Texas Declaration of Secession:
Texas abandoned her separate national existence and consented to become
one of the Confederated Union...She was received into the confederacy...as
a commonwealth holding, maintaining and protecting the institution known
as negro slavery-- the servitude of the African to the white race within
her limits-- a relation that had existed from the first settlement of
her wilderness by the white race, and which her people intended should
exist in all future time.
In all the non-slave-holding States...the people have formed themselves
into a great sectional party...based upon an unnatural feeling of hostility
to these Southern States and their beneficent and patriarchal system of
African slavery, proclaiming the debasing doctrine of equality of all
men, irrespective of race or color-- a doctrine at war with nature, in
opposition to the experience of mankind, and in violation of the plainest
revelations of Divine Law. They demand the abolition of negro slavery
throughout the confederacy, the recognition of political equality between
the white and negro races, and avow their determination to press on their
crusade against us, so long as a negro slave remains in these States
...all white men are and of right ought to be entitled to equal civil
and political rights; that the servitude of the African race, as existing
in these States, is mutually beneficial to both bond and free, and is
abundantly authorized and justified by the experience of mankind, and
the revealed will of the Almighty Creator, as recognized by all Christian
nations...
From the South Carolina Declaration of Secession:
We affirm that these ends for which this Government was instituted
have been defeated, and the Government itself has been made destructive
of them by the action of the non-slaveholding States. Those States have
assume the right of deciding upon the propriety of our domestic institutions;
and have denied the rights of property established in fifteen of the States
and recognized by the Constitution; they have denounced as sinful the
institution of slavery; they have permitted open establishment among them
of societies, whose avowed object is to disturb the peace and to eloign
the property of the citizens of other States. They have encouraged and
assisted thousands of our slaves to leave their homes; and those who remain,
have been incited by emissaries, books and pictures to servile insurrection.
So, the next time some Johnny Reb wannabe starts with the revisionist
gobbledeygook, just show them what the Rebels themselves said was their
reason for committing treason against the United States of America. The
Confederacy is a disgraceful episode of grand moral cowardice; we should
teach it to our children the same way the Thrd Reich is taught in Germany:
a mark of shame with no positive redeeming value.
|