Southern Pride, Duplicity, Shame, Thrives Today

I can’t discuss Southern pride or Southern shame without a discussion of the Confederate flag, what’s many controversies sum-up the issues surrounding Southern identity. Today the 20th century Confederate flag is but a modernization of several flags of the civil war era. The “stars and bars” or “Dixie” as some call it, is displayed for many reasons besides a longing for war with the Yankees – don’t disregard this yearning.

A general rebellion against the federal government is one reason to fly the Stars and Bars. A sense of free will is exerted in the direction of the north, where the federal government is located. “Don’t tell me what to do, northerners!”

During the recent referendum on the Georgia state flag, words flew high and mighty over the meaning of the flag, as fans of the confederacy fought hard to keep the Stars and Bars as part of the state flag. They won. But one interesting slogan touted to convince others of the banality of the request of having “Dixie” stay on the flag was “Its Heritage Not Hate.” It was a long and hard fought battle, the Antietum of popular referendums. It was also a telling battle. Because it is often what oppositions don’t say that says as much about background and motive as any outward statements and sloganeering.

The white supremacists groups will also fly the Stars and Bars as an outward defiant statement of racism, white power, and pro segregation.

Civil War re-enactors and other enthusiasts will tout the flag for authenticity and for heritage motives. The modern “Dixie” of today was the battle flag of the 1860s.

Heritage (and not necessarily hatred) is indeed another reason for flying the Stars and Bars. Heritage that is inherently connected to identity needed to overcome the status and power of the industrial, now high tech, north. The North; where everyone seems to live, where the majority of the welfare dollars originate for the recipients in the south. The North where television shows are focused upon as if the world is centered there. The North where beautiful women speak without “twang,” and have good posture and express themselves sexually, as seen on television. The Stars and Bars overcomes an identity ignored, enforces an identity lost to modern media, brings comfort to those all too aware of the disparity yet all too aware that they may never leave the south. Embrace the Stars and Bars and learn to love yourself Southern Man.

On the polar side of the merits of waving the Stars and Bars there is the shame, the prejudice, the hatred conveyed and or just perceived, the out-right slap in the face racism that some feel when seeing this symbol.

Civil War Shame

The shame is everywhere. It begins with Atlanta and the humiliation of Sherman’s conquer and occupation of that fair city. Still not forgotten in the sub conscience of the southerner. Then Sherman marched south and east burning, looting, killing, and raping, on orders from Washington D.C.. Tearing a path of humility and shame with him. Where were the men to protect those people? Gone, fighting somewhere else and dying by the tens of thousands while their wives and children suffered and lost everything life and material.

Meet the web site of the Dublin, Georgia chamber of commerce and the page titled The History of Dublin; an approximately 5,000 word article which mysteriously stops telling its own history at 1854. The Dublin historian writing this article chose not to tell that Dublin was smack in the middle of General Sherman’s reign of terror from Atlanta to Savannah, that the town was razed, that the young men of Dublin were no where to be found because they were off dying somewhere else.

A fascinating entry by the historian on the web page was a mention of the slave statistics of the immediate area (see below). Having left out the entire Civil War from her notations she saw fit to include the following.

From the History of Laurens County, Georgia, by Harriet Claxton:
”Slavery was a national institution, and although most of the people in Laurens County did not own slaves, they were loyal to the principle of slavery and resented any disrupting influences of the Abolitionists. In 1845, there were 3,258 whites and 2,760 slaves in the county."

The majority of white people did not own slaves. In fact more than %90 did not own slaves, they could not afford to. Slaves belonged to the wealthy mega acreage land owners who grew cotton, tobacco and corn, it is these few men who had everything to lose from abolition of slavery, and men like these who bankrolled the Civil War.

It was also these few men who distributed the propaganda needed to launch a Civil War, through the newspapers they owned. Not well known is that most white men in the north were not willing to fight a war to free slaves. Most northern men had never even seen a slave. In the south, because the great majority of white men did not own slaves, they were not willing to fight a war to keep slaves. Enter the rich white propaganda machine; “fight a war over taxes and tariffs!” The old battle cry of no taxation without representation would have fit well. It was enough to fool the masses and garnish the unlearned to arms to fight and die over slavery.

Yes the Civil War was fought over slavery. Southerners who are still sore losers and feel the guilt, and will concoct hypotheses, and will produce antique letters. But the truth of the matter is that if the issue of slavery were not there, nor would have been the Civil War.

Southern states have higher monetary needs than do the northern states, absorbed through federal government distribution via natural disaster relief, hurricanes and tornadoes, and via welfare and infrastructure needs like highway funds (larger states longer highways more bridges), and health care of the uninsured. In fact, if there is a welfare queen, she lives in the deep south or Texas. So the southerner should in fairness love the “union” part of the “United States.” But if one day the South were to secede from the North, their poverty would be unimaginable, while the North would benefit through release of burden.

The Rebel southerner loves the idea of the confederacy of 8 generations past, and at the same time takes shame in his ancestors having gotten their asses kicked by Yankees because their leadership of the time wanted to maintain slavery, and the right to secede to do so. As shown in the example of the Dublin, Georgia, history page on their web site, purposefully leaving off the Civil War and General Sherman’s “visit.”

Join the army and fight for our freedom, because freedom is not free. Take pride in knowing that you are fighting to keep America free. Simultaneously, while at home, fly a confederate flag and tout the merits of the South, as a Rebel would. This is the duplicity of the southern confederate patriot. Crossing the line from duplicity into hypocrisy is the war in Iraq and the large numbers of Southern Rebel enlisted men and women from southern states. The identity they tout is one of separation at home yet they fight overseas for democratic governance and a unified nation in the middle east.

Labels: civil war, confederacy, confederate, Dixie, heritage, history civil war, shame, slavery, slaves, southern, stars and bars