All Revolutionary War participants were defending slavery

Posted on: August 18, 2017 at 12:45:01 CT

that's a fact. They wanted an independent, slave owning nation. They got it.

And a lot of the Confederates who were fighting didn't own slaves or care much if they ever did. Does that mean they were fighting specifically because they supported the institution of slavery? Were they fighting more just to uphold the economic engine of their region of the country, which happened to include slavery? Were they fighting simply because their homeland was being attacked by an army and, being unsophisticated rural yokels who knew little of the politics behind the war, they chose to fight to protect their back yard? Or were they fighting because they were racist jerks who couldn't stand the thought of a black person going free? Or all of the above? Or none?

It's complicated and my guess is for every single member of the Confederacy, Lee included, the answer would be different shades and parts of the various different options above. And again, it's not like the people who fought for the North were all fighting "to free the slaves" either. Some fought because they were drafted into it. Some fought because they were fresh off the boat immigrants and it gave them a way to identify with their new country. None of the Northern states were in any hurry to grant the freed slaves any basic civil rights like, say, non-segregated public education or even non-segregated drinking fountains.

It's all very complicated and multi-layered. Statues, paintings, flags, symbols don't have any intrinsic meaning. They all mean only what we decide they mean. And right now the country as a whole can't make up its damn mind what any of that stuff actually means.

Edited by McMuffin at 12:47:05 on 08/18/17