firehand

Prometheus 6   

Do not make the mistake of thinking that because my conclusion is the same as another person's that my reasoning is the same

May 08, 2003

 

An interesting exchange

On a discussion board I frequent someone just posted "Top 13 "US Civil War" myths exposed!"

He led with:

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.
which, of course, was necessary because the text does exactly what he says he doesn't intend to do. It's like, "It's not the money, it's the principle of the thing." Whenever you hear that, you know it's about the money.

So I ask:
What was the point of posting this? What is the conclusion you would like us to draw?
and someone else says:
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.

Now, I don't actually dispute this bit of boilerplate. I'm just wondering what da hell it's got to do with the discussion. And the original neo-Confederate revisionist says
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.

Couple of other statements leads me to address each of these 13 "myths." I name them, but do not present the original "justification." If anyone wants them let me know.
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:
President Jefferson Davis had a far higher approval rating among Southern blacks than Abraham Lincoln did.
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:
Not one slave ship EVER sailed which flew the Confederate flag.

Quote:
Meanwhile, throughout the entire war, US ships flying the "stars and stripes" banner (and operated mainly by New England shipping merchants) continued to sell African slaves in Spanish-speaking America and Brazil. In fact, of ALL African slaves brought to the Americas, only 6% arrived in the USA - the remaining 94% were sold in Central and South America. This Union slave-shipping trade continued unfettered both during and after the war.

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:
Thus, international slave-trading by US merchants served a key role in helping to finance the "liberation" of Confederate slaves.
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.

posted by Prometheus 6 at 5/8/2003 04:55:35 PM |

Posted by P6 at May 8, 2003 04:55 PM | Trackback URL: http://www.prometheus6.org/mt/mt-tb.cgi/424
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