Common Man's Point of View: Letters on Southern Blacks, Part 1

This is one in a series of articles being featured on the Political Spectrum as part of Secession Week.

Dear Mr. Edgerton,

I don't send this as a liberal or a Yankee or to be unfriendly by any means, but I'm curious how you and the few black folks who are seen with the Confederate flag reconcile the slavery aspect of the Confederacy.

For several years I was sympathetic toward the Confederacy, but last year I ran across something I hadn't seen before, which was the official reasons for secession by most of the Southern states.  I'm afraid that most of those states' primary reason appeared to be the preservation of slavery.  That was disappointing.  I knew that slavery was going on in the South quite a bit, but I thought that the main reason was high tariffs/taxes imposed by the US government to benefit the North.  Even the Constitution of the CSA mentions slavery.  I know that almost all folks who fly a Confederate flag today have absolutely no desire to reinstate slavery, and rightly so, and I know that most Confederate soldiers during the "Civil War" had no slaves and weren't fighting for slavery.  What seems to be true is that the core of the Confederacy, its government made up of rich politicians and endorsed by rich plantation owners, was indeed very much wanting to preserve slavery, and I can't seem to get past that now!  The Bible doesn't condemn slavery, and in fact there is mention of folks in the Old Testament having slaves, but I've read that those "slaves" weren't actually in bondage for life, but were paying off debt or some such, if I'm not mistaken.

Could you shed some light on the subject?  I'm not referring to Confederate soldiers from the honorable Robert E. Lee on down to the hardship-enduring barefoot private, but was the very essence of the Confederate government evil since it wanted to perpetuate slavery?  I've read that slavery was probably on its way out in the South, but I wonder if it really would've eventually been made unconstitutional under the Confederate government.  I also acknowledge that slavery was legal in the US all those years before they finally made it unconstitutional after the "Civil War."

I'd really like to get some things settled in my mind in reference to the Confederacy.  I've read one side and the other and it's a mite frustrating not knowing who was most right and who was most wrong.

Thank you for any help on the subject.

Sincerely,

Rodney

Noble, OK

HK:

As you prepare your answer to the original e-mail, I offer some thoughts of my own.

First, let us deal with the most fundamental issue, here.  The "cause" of the Confederate soldier was not necessarily the "cause" of the Confederate government.  Fewer than 10 percent of southerners owned slaves.  The number was far lower than  that among Confederate soldiers, most of whom were too young to own slaves, besides being too poor. 

Now: were there political arguments to secede so that slavery could be protected?  Sure.  The slavery question was first of all a property question, as dictated by the Supreme Court (in the Dred Scott decision, for example), but the Confederate Battle Flag, the flag of the Confederate soldier, and the flag of the SCV, is only tangentially related to slavery, at all.  There's no particular evidence that the Confederate army had ANY position on slavery.   Still, it's a legitimate question, whether the Confederate government was pro-slavery.  The answer is "yes", but so was the U.S. government!  Slavery existed in the United States territories and several states until abolished by the 13th amendment.  Many U.S. Army officers owned slaves all during the war.  Slaves were used to build the dome of the U.S. capitol in 1863.  

Most Confederates fought because their homes had been invaded by Yankee armies.  They fought to protect their homes and families that were seriously threatened.  Seven states composed the Confederacy before Lincoln declared war on the south. Six others, Virginia, Kentucky, Tennessee, North Carolina, Missouri, and Arkansas, plus the territories of Oklahoma (four Indian nations, organized as two states) and New Mexico only left the Union after Lincoln's call for volunteers.  There's just no logical way to pretend that these left over "slavery". 

Finally, as to the issue of slavery, itself.  It may authentically be viewed as a moral, economic, or political issue.  The moral dimension has come to dominate the debate of late, but the economic and political dimensions were far more important in the middle of the 19th century.  The literature makes this clear.  Even on moral grounds, while the great factory-plantations of Mississippi, Arkansas, and Louisiana were, by most reasonable standards truly deplorable, most slaves were not on these huge absentee-owned plantations.  Most were in family groups living and working on small farms with the white families who "owned" them.  Just as they provided labor to the white "masters", the white families provided food, shelter, and often education and opportunities to them.  The nature of the slavery situation, off the largest plantations, was very complicated and very difficult to describe.  It is of some note that most such slaves chose to take the "master"'s surname, when they left the plantation (or home, which may have been more current).  Anyhow, the slavery arguments that contributed to secession were rarely moral.  They were about compensation for lost property and adjustment of political representation based on population.  So they should be viewed, today.

Sincerely,

Tom

Good Morning,

I read with interest the email sent to you from the man at Noble, OK.

First off the slaves were helping the only friend that they had in the world since the Africans sold him into slavery. His old cabin shack in the south was all that he had in America.

His constant thoughts were to be back home in Africa. You may find that hard to believe but it was true. After being kidnapped by Africans and Europeans his consciousness mind was changed when forcibly being scattered all over the colonies.

The black slaves were all prisoners of war. Prisoners of war do what the conqueror tells him to do. Of course he is gradually conformed to the master’s habits and way of living.

The millions of black slaves could have risen up against the Plantation owner and killed his women and children during the War Between the States but this did not happen.

Black slaves began to have affections and love for their Slave owning masters. However there were some field slaves who hated their master but that did not keep them from helping to participate in the War Between the States.

Remember who has control of the money supply, the media and the Supreme Court in this country today.

Most Americans are so ignorant of the history of this country that foreigners come here and are more informed than the vast number of Americans.

The enemy of the country was not the Stars and Bars but the Stars and Stripes.

The slaves today are poor Whites, Blacks, and Mexicans fighting a war for the rich oil men and the World Bank.

The same technique that the rich used on Blacks in the War Between the States is the same techniques used today to lure poor white, black, and Mexicans into the war (Fighting for their Homeland and country).

A person doesn’t have a country when they are dead and gone. But if you trick them into believing that they are fighting for their country give them a uniform a gun and a few dollars you can accomplish the rich man's mission of having the poor die and their rich children live to realize the American dream.

Blacks fought because they believed that the South was their country but many of them new that somewhere in Africa were their real country.

The Ancestors of the Blacks slaves fight today because they believe in a country that has done them harm in many ways too numerous to elaborate. You can call these blacks lucky.

Under the Stars and Stripes they have made an entire industry of locking up young black men in every state of the Union. It’s the new slavery system. So when this man wonders why blacks are wearing confederate uniforms, it is my belief that they would have faired better under the Confederacy.

In fact the Confederate government probably would have help the Slaves conqueror a slave dealing country in Africa and honestly help blacks build up a civilized country of their own in Africa.

Think about it, has any good happened under the Stars and Stripes for the masses of the Ancestors of thee Freed Black slaves are their descendents?

If I had my choice as a Southern free black knowing historically what I know and seeing how black are constantly being tricked and victimized under the Stars and Stripes today, I would take my chances under the Confederacy.

Regards,

Anonymous

The first image used in this posting courtesy of Southern Heritage 411.  The second and third images used in this posting are in the public domain.  These letters were kindly sent to the Political Spectrum by Southern Heritage 411.