North preyed on South
10/20/2010
This is in regard to the Oct. 10 editorial titled "Most civil of him."
What I got from Gov. McDonnell’s September speech at Norfolk State University was that now we must put the C (Confederate) word in the same class as the N word.
The writer was correct in saying that they fought valiantly on both sides. The War against Southern Independence was the most avoidable tragedy of all times in U.S. history. The re-enactments merely remind one of that tragedy.
Most Dixie defenders merely wish to have the entire history of that time included in being taught and understood.
It is a fact that Lincoln said in his first inaugural speech that he had no intention of interfering with slavery in states in which it existed. It is a fact that the Emancipation Proclamation did not free one slave. It is a fact that the great majority of the Union and Lincoln never expected equality between the races.
It is a fact that Lincoln met with black leaders in the White House to encourage them to settle elsewhere outside the U.S. It is a fact that Lincoln said the Confederate States could keep their slaves if they would only return to the Union.
There were civil rights violations, as we know them today, in every state at that time.
It seems that all that is taught or the normal person knows is that the evil Confederates had slaves. Slavery existed for more than 200 years in the Northern states and was legal in every state at the time of the signing of the Declaration of Independence.
Ted Humphries
Stafford
