The Confederate flag: a mixed history
From Church Militant
By Richard Ducayne
Google is world-renowned for having anything and everything on its
website, but the best-known symbol of the Confederate States — the
battle flag of the Army of Northern Virginia, later adopted as the flag
of the Confederacy — is now nowhere to be seen. On typing the search
terms "Confederate Flag" under the "Shopping" tab, results turn up
nothing at all — just a blank screen. In the wake of the racially
motivated
shooting
in Charleston, South Carolina, where a white man draped in the battle
flag shot nine black victims in a church, major stores — including Wal
Mart, Sears, K-Mart and e-bay — are also pulling similar merchandise.
The battle flag represents the Confederacy during the American Civil
War, which is often taught as a war over slavery. But southerners claim
slavery had little to do with it, and the war had more to do with
preserving the South's sovereignty and with rebuffing Northern
aggression. Where does the truth lie between these two extremes?
There are compelling arguments on both sides, but a few facts can be
confirmed. Slavery in America was first legalized in the North — in
Massachusetts in 1625 — and slavery ownership remained a regular
practice in some northern states even throughout the Civil War. And it's
a fact that most white southern families did not own slaves. After the
South asked for the right to secede from the Union, President Abraham
Lincoln's goal in launching the war was
not to end slavery, as many think, but rather to preserve the Union.
