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Glad someone said it — took me years of being out of school and studying on my own (was born and raised in the “Land of Lincoln”) to really understand the Confederates’ side of the story. When one understands that it REALLY wasn’t about slaves, but that their objections were really about the 10th Amendment and the overstepping of the Federal Government you’re getting somewhere near the truth then...

It’s also a great object lesson into a relatively current event in which we can see the “victors write the history” very clearly.

The sad thing is that the whole subject is so fraught with emotion for so many to this day that one cannot have an intellectual discussion on this topic without having to defend oneself against charges of racism... at least that has been my experience. If one shows respect for the Confederates at all (again in my experience), you find your IQ seemingly drops 100 points in the eyes of the person across from you... But again, when one has been taught over and over that it was all about the slaves what would you expect?

It’s the loss of this understanding of how our Republic was supposed to work in light of the 10th Amendment that has led us to the position we find ourselves in today.

[PS - 21twelve; I don’t know how old your son is, but don’t give up... It was extremely enlightening to me when I was able to not only see “both sides”, but able to actually understand some of the more complex issues behind it — it also greatly assists me to this day in regards to always having a “questioning” mind when it comes to any government official or agency. Wish I could give you some advice on how to perhaps counterract what your son may be learning in school, but all of my understanding came after I was already an adult... As for my children - well we homeschool, so it’s easier to give them a more balanced view, IMHO.)

Thanks Liberty Rocks. My son is 15. He is very conservative, as are my younger daughters. I think the hard thing for him (and me as well to a point), is that the Civil War was the results of a LOT of things coming together at the same time. (Heck - aren’t most wars?)

I’m thankful for this thread to see discussion and arguments on both sides to learn more about it. I probably leaned too much to the “it was all economic” side. So will try to pick out a few possible causes and point them out to my son and daughters.

I had made a comment on another thread about the power of Civil Disobedience and used the example of the four or five black high-school kids that kept sitting at the whites-only counter at Woolworths. (It was recently in one of the younger kid’s “Weekly Reader” from school.)

Another Freeper thought that was a poor example, because here these kids were disrupting a private business, and utlimately the law forced that private business (and all others) to not segregate folks. That was an interesting take on it. He mentioned he thought it was a dumb business move, but if the business want’s to lose money by not allowing blacks - that’s their business.

We had a good discussion about it at the dinner table. Although it is hard for my kids to understand the whole race problem thing - but they did get the point about businesses getting to do what they want to a point.

Based on some other comments on the thread, I wonder if any books have been written on what the world (or at least North America) would look like if the South had been allowed to secede?