Why the South Lives On

Now all the overtaxed carpetbaggers want to move there.

I object to the writer’s use of the term the “South” as the actor. It was the dimokkkrap party that promoted and protected slavery, seceded, started the war, formed the kkk, enacted jim crowe and created institutionalized racism. All this was done by the dims to protect slavery. Now they have to scream racist and point at other people endlessly in hopes that people will be so alarmed by the screaming and pointing that they temporarily forget it was the dims who did the crime.

One group even wanted to expand slavery throughout the Caribbean. Except slavery already existed in the Caribbean. Got it..

Sorry Mike. The most telling phrase in your article is at the end, beginning with: "I am not a fan of the South,"etc. etc. Obviously. If you were, then you would not automatically jump on Slavery! Slavery! Slavery! as the main cause for the War Between the States. Agreed, it was the hot button issue then and was used to stoke the fires of Northern enmity; much like Russia! Russia! Russia! was recently used against Trump. But honest and thorough research reveals that slavery would have gone away on its own~~maybe not as quickly, but certainly in due course as human sensibilities and economics put the final nails in its coffin. The movement was already underway, so it was a matter of time before international pressure to bring the United States into the fold of abolitionist nations became a reality. What could not be cured easily was the steady march to undo the rights guaranteed to all states under the Constitution. When those new laws targeted Southern states, the inevitable happened.

This is a rather condescending article...

Lots to unpack from this article. Be very careful of framing two sides in a conflict as the ‘good’ and ‘bad’ guys. History is usually written by the victors or slanted towards the victor’s POV. Be also mindful of generational snobbery; succeeding generations are so much more enlightened than their predecessors. Think again. A few thoughts: - The ‘North’ was no angel either. Northerners culturally looked down at Southerners since the colonial era (rural vs city folk variant). The leading abolitionists did not so much ‘love’ or were compassionate about negroes but used them as their excuse for loathing the South. The abolitionists proclaimed emancipation but had a NIMBY mindset regarding blacks. - The vast majority of Southerners were not slave owners. Accordingly, most of the Confederate regiments were manned with rural farmers who did NOT own slaves.

To repeat what most know, most Southerners didn’t own slaves. Slavery was the driving force behind secession but the South went to war only after Lincoln started an illegal, bloody war. The North went to war for money....the loss of its tariffs and the warm water ports in the South would have cost them millions in lost revenue and import/export business.

The south isn't a big fan of you either Mike. They'd probably say "Bless your heart" to your face.

As a descendent daughter of "The South," I was not impressed by this author's understanding of the southern culture. He did give some credit to the women, but I do not think he has any understanding of how close in spirit the women were to their men. I never thought about that aspect of it until a very educated and wise client who was not raised in the South or Southwest asked me to introduce him to my single lady friends. He said that he loved the way that Texas women and Texas men got along with each other, as couples and in communities. Many men who died in the war left behind young sons. Those young sons had already been filled with their father's strong character and spirit. The women kept it alive because they had it, too.

Mike probably thinks the Emancipation Proclamation freed all the slaves. Uh, no. It only freed the slaves in the ''rebellious states.'' I think even a Yankee who doesn't like the south can see a totally political ploy when they see one. Or maybe not.

Mike should confine his "opinion" to subjects he knows something about. The article reads as if he were up against a hard date to submit his article and had to write about something.

To Jefferson Davis and the other Democrats who caused the Civil War, it was about slavery and power. To the vast majority of poor, largely uneducated Southern farm boys who actually fought the war, it was about honor and (ironically) freedom from oppression. As today, Democrats used demagoguery to manipulate the ignorant masses.

This guy knows nothing about the South.

You are so right # 1 , and as soon as they get here they feel ordained to enlighten us backward rubes.

Tell me how the 'northern culture' is doing next will ya? If you want to really go GREEN and chase the Yankees back to their lovely urban shite wholes, we can roll back air conditioning south of the Mason Dixon line. Put back in attic fans, screened windows, all cotton sheets, ceiling fans on the shaded front porch, sit in lawn chairs on the St Augustine grass after supper and watch the fire flies come out at dusk. Then the June bugs start, and the bullfrogs and crickets. Hardly any carbon footprint then.

So is the writer claiming that all the northern blacks who are moving back down south, tired of the gang problems and the democrat policies are racist too? Yes that is a surprising phenomena that has been happening for a couple of decades now. Blacks want to escape the democrat failures as much as anybody else.

another yankee trying to tell us what our history should be, in his opinion. The Truth is that the war was fought over MONEY. The South was paying taxes to the yankee government and the yankees were shortchanging the South in the amount of taxes that were supposed to be given back to the States. but its easy and popular to blame everything on slavery

Only 7% of Southerners owned slaves and some slave owners were BLACK. The First slave sold in America was sold to a black man in Boston. The man who owned the most slaves in Louisiana was also Black

The North wants to take the high road regarding slavery. Yet the abolitionist movement did not get a good start until New England shipping magnates could no longer make money in the trans-Atlantic slave trade.

Am no expert on the law. But, where in the Constitution as it existed in 1861 does it say that a State cannot leave the Union? How many marriages would there be if there was no possibility of divorce? Most Southerners did not own slaves. They fought because their country was being invaded. The sentiments expressed in The Declaration of Independence were equally applicable in 1776 and 1861. The reasons the Confederate Flag is still flown in parts of America is it is a regional symbol and resistance to a tyrannical government.

I think one simple answer as to how the "South" survived is that we are pretty much all descended from mountain people. Both sides of my family split over secession and the war. One of my great grandfathers in Alabama lied about his age and joined the Confederate Army when he was 15. He ended up a courier for Joe Wheeler. One of his grandfathers was a Unionist, the other a Confederate. They lived in east Tennessee.

Ordinarily I don't add a comment that I already posted, but a few more thoughts about the War between the States: - Strictly speaking, the period between 1861-1865 was not a 'civil war'. As defined, civil wars are internal struggles between at least two competing factions trying to gain control over the seat of government. Indeed, the South never wanted to take control of the whole country and viewed that their political positions were being increasingly ignored or infringed upon. Hence, the secession movement to form their own country. - Dovetailing on the theme of the citizens of the South, they viewed the North's social, economic and political interests regarding them as meddling at best and hostile at worst. As mentioned, the rank and file citizen soldiers did not necessarily fight for slavery but were fighting for their honor and home. Fun fact: We assume that the Confederate Army were mostly WASPs. However, the Army of Northern Virginia had more than its share of Germans, Dutch, Scots, Irish, Scotch-Irish, Cajuns AND Jews in their ranks. The Scots-Irish being some of their most ferocious fighters. Rebel yell, anyone? - Regarding slavery: As with the colonial era, the antebellum South inherited slavery's socio-economic system from previous generations. Slavery was essentially baked in the cake with an agrarian-based plantation economy (primarily) and it was next to impossible to extricate from their economy and society abruptly. - After the assassination of Lincoln, his concept of "...with malice towards none" regarding reconstruction of the South died with him. Sherman's "March to the Sea" scorched-earth campaign, the garrisoning of Union troops post-conflict and the carpet-baggers flowing exploiting the aftermath greatly hobbled and humiliated the South for decades. Some say to this day.

Jamaica was the drop off island for Africans sold by African chiefs as prisoners who could not be controlled. (who can blame them?)These men and women were called Maroons. They headed for the hills and created their own society outside British culture. Centuries later Michael Manley exported them to the U.S. and Canada.