Quote Originally Posted by 4Dragons View Post
Quote Originally Posted by tony bagadonuts View Post

Maybe Tom clarifies or amends this statement later in the thread. Regardless, the problem with his analysis is that it is incorrect. Slavery was absolutely THE reason the civil war occurred. Not emancipation certainly (a by-product of the war and the Union victory) but to keep slavery legal and therefore, in the minds of southerners, protect the southern slave-dependent economy.

Slavery dominated the national debate basically from the Louisiana Purchase forward until Lincoln's election in 1860. Lincoln was elected on Nov 6th and South Carolina voted to secede on Dec 20th, and it wasn't because they didn't want "the man" in their business. It was because the wrongfully believed Lincoln was an abolitionist who would destroy the south's way of life.

My family fought under Sherman to keep the Union whole, not for human rights issues. I'm glad it all worked out because the argument had existed since the days of the Revolution and was a sticking point of the southern States to agree to the rebellion in the first place. Just to be clear, I don't see any reason for that flag to fly anywhere but in a museum.

You actually helped my point "fought to keep the union whole, not for human rights issues", I suppose we can agree to disagree but my point was the civil war was not just about slavery yet it was used as a "fuse". Not every southern home had a slave and not every unionist fought to free slaves.

The funny thing is the north had no issue with slavery under British rule until the revolution and after that their industry suffered and they had no use. Think about this a moment, if the revolution did not impact the norths economy they would have kept slaves because they needed them.

Would a civil war still have happened? I believe so because the under lying issue was "the man", slavery was a sticking point and easiest to exploit.

End of day obviously slavery was a horrid abuse and glad it ended.

As far as the flag goes, personally it makes no difference to me since I have to history with it but it says something about our world and the USA.

Be careful what flag you fly because if popular media suddenly tells us all it's bad and moves government to remove it and outlaw it, what's next?