The Atlantic: “We know this is a lie, because the people who fought in the Civil War told us so. “Our position is thoroughly identified with the institution of slavery—the greatest material interest of the world,” Mississippi lawmakers declared during their 1861 secession convention. Slavery was “the immediate cause of the late rupture and present revolution,” the Confederate vice president, Alexander Stephens, said, adding that the Confederacy was founded on “the great truth that the negro is not equal to the white man.”
It’s disturbing to read those words. It was also the premise of the Civil War. I often think Lincoln was too kind after the war. Then again what would’ve happened if all of the Confederate leadership had been put to death? Smarter men than I made those decisions. It is history.
I wish laws had been established to outlaw the use of Confederate symbols. It’s not a heritage to be proud of. It was a movement to overthrow the government of the United States of America. Treason. Punishable by death.
Today all Confederate statues and symbols should be burned to the ground and treated as symbols of hate. The Confederacy is the closest thing Americans have to that of Nazi Germany.
We cannot allow this to happen again no matter how much some of our modern day leaders want for it.
Sure, it’s a heritage. A heritage of hate. Burn it all down. Teach the truth of it. Stamp out the lies.
