Today I was asked on a friends page where one of my notes had been reposted/SHARED this question, “By ‘pro-Confederate’ do you also mean pro-slavery? In what way can you separate the two?” I felt he was not meaning to insult me and was just unusually poorly informed about U.S.history. I think any Southerner would have seen his question as insulting or coming out of embarrassingly gross ignorance. Below is the answer that I messaged him privately since I did not want to cause him public embarrassment and I did wanted to give him a direct response after pulling up his FB Page.

Dear ________,

I do not know you and can only suppose that in some way your equating things Confederate with slavery. In the South your question would be considered as insincere, or an attempt to ridicule Southern agrarians based on your ignorance or hatred of Southerners or simply the result of totalitarian brainwashing in American schools. I would suggest that you obtain the book “The Myths of American Slavery” by the Kennedy brothers.

Slavery and or the sale of slaves was outlawed in many Southern States as soon as independence was obtained from England, but the federal government dominated by the many Senators from the many tiny New England States blocked the implementation of these laws for decades. New England was heavily dependent on slave trafficking for their shipping businesses and New England mills were very dependent on cheap cotton produced by slaves mostly in the Southern States and therefore opposed all such laws that began in Virginia, Tennessee, North Carolina, etc. by 1800. The very first legislation by an independent Virginia in 1800 outlawed the bringing and sale of new slaves to Virginia and mandating the timed-release of existing slaves. This is in the Commonwealth of Virginia’s (State) Archives and this history appeared in all Virginia school textbooks detailed by Virginia historians such as Beverly Mumford who was one of the best known Virginia historians of the period.

Most northerners have been so propagandised on the topic that they do not know that Abraham Lincoln worked 500 slaves during his administration to build the U.S. Capital building and that the Emancipation Proclamation was strictly a political ploy resulting in the release of zero slaves in the States over which he had control. There were over 432,000 slaves that he could have released from slavery but he worded the Proclamation in such a way that it would “release” slaves only in territories in which the USA had no control; therefore, not one slave was released. U.S. General Grants family owned slaves that were released only after the second 13th Amendment was passed well after the end of the war.

At best your question will be seen as either 1) silly or 2) mean or 3) ignorant to Southerner’s which is why I have written this message privately so as not to embarrass you on the FB pages. The book by the Kennedy’s is published by The Pelican Press and sells for about $23 and gives an excellent summary of American slavery. I hope this note will be helpful to you. And “No” I have never met a Southerner who wished to restore American slavery in their States.

Sincerely,

Tim D. Manning, M. Div
Retired Professor of Ethics and Theology

Web Source:
Facebook post by Tim Manning – December 29, 2020