Prometheus 6   

First off, please don't think that any of this is intended to promote the nefarious practices of slavery or slave trading. Rather, it is intended to provide a more complete understanding of the events in the context of the time, minus much of the propaganda now taught in schools.

What was the point of posting this? What is the conclusion you would like us to draw?

I can think of several reasonable conclusions:

1. Much of official U.S. history is a lie.

2. Many of the American ideals have been cynically exploited for private profit, both political and commercial, at the governmental level for a very long time.

3. One shouldn't take patriotic propaganda about how U.S. soldiers fight honorably, sparing women, children, non-combatants, and abiding by rules of war seriously, as these concepts fly in the face of historical reality.

4. Being conquered by the U.S. is not necessarily a good thing, contrary to current propaganda. But then, any Native American, Cuban, or Filipino could have told you that ages ago.

5. The U.S. is the undisputed world leader in ethnic cleansing and hypocrisy.

Conclusion: The war was not a war about slavery, and was not a legal war to preserve the Union. Rather, it was a war fought primarily over the Right of the States and People to determine their own destiny.

As history proves, the States and People lost the war.

Like I said, I don't dispute the points you made. But let me give you my view on the specific "myths"

Myth#1 - The war was a civil war
Unimportant. I could care less what name it's given

Myth #2 - The war was necessary and legal in order to "preserve the Union".
Relativity. True from the Union's perspective, false from the Confederacy's

Myth #3 - The war was fought to end the practice of slavery.
I've known this was bullshit since high school, just as I've known the "Emancipation Proclaimation" excluded the slave states that sided with the Union.

The war, like all wars, was the shooting phase of an economic dispute, in this case over the transition from a primarily agrarian economy to an industrial one where slavery was no longer the most productive basis to grow on. Unfortunately, the CULTURE of the Confederacy was built on slavery. The claim that it was about slavery is a misapprehension of these combined facts.

Myth #4 - Yankee States ended slavery because it was cruel and barbaric.
This is merely a restatement of Myth #3, hence an empty expansion of reference

Myth #5 - Blacks were treated better in the North than in the South.
Blacks were treated fine in the Confederacy as long as they stayed uneducated, didn't resist when the women were raped, gave up their children to be raised in pens, didn't try to run away...

Myth #6: Southern slaves lived in squalor and violence. While it is true that there occasionally existed a cruel slavemaster, this was true in both North and South. To say this was commonplace is like saying that because some parents abuse their children, the USA is a nation of child abusers.

Tripe. Bad logic. Not to mention an absolute abuse of the word "occasionally." EVERY day is an occasion...

Myth #7 - Southern slaves welcomed Union forces.
Like the Iraqis welcomed the US and British forces, right?

Would require too much documentation to support on the fly. For now, I'll just say that you shouldn't judge a group by its exceptions.

Myth #8 - Confederate troops commited atrocities; Union troops did not.
Both committed atrocities. Seems to be the nature of war.

Myth #9 - The CSA was governed by a wealthy elite, despite the will of the People.
No one said it was "despite the will of the people." The people were perfectly happy being ruled by a wealthy elite. Sadly not much has changed in this regard. But this:
Quote:is an AMAZING statement. Do you really believe anyone asked the slaves' opinion?? At least one state, South Carolina, had laws requiring freed slaves to LEAVE THE STATE.

Myth #10 - Blacks had no rights in the South.
The few "rights" they had were subordinate to the rights of white folks.

Myth #11 - the Confederates were fighting to preserve the practice of slavery.
This is merely a restatement of Myth #3, hence an empty expansion of reference

Myth #12 - Confederate States and people were poor and destitute, and fought out of desperation.
This is not something I was ever taught.

Myth #13 - The Confederacy fought to preserve the importation of African slaves.
This one is special

Quote:
Quote:
True, but when the direct importation from Africa to the USofA ended, they started buying their slaves from those Carribbean nations that took in all the others. It really doesn't matter that they had a "stop-over" before they reached the Confederacy... it still funded the Northern slave shippers, and it was still a Confederate market the shippers were ultimately serving.

Quote:No argument.

MY CONCLUSION: This is a bunch of self-serving neo-Confederate bullshit. It doesn't mean the USofA hasn't misrepresented itself as noble and all that, it means the neo-Confederates behind this book and list of nonsense are doing so as well.