To the editor:
Some anti-Confederates claim monuments remind them of slavery.
• 169 years of slavery under the Union Jack of England, 73 years under our Star Spangled Banner; four more years under the Stars & Stripes and Stars & Bars.
Some pro-Confederates claim the War had nothing to do with slavery.
• The only slavery issue was the Federal government’s attempt to prohibit the expansion of slavery into the territories; i.e. The Missouri Compromise of 1820 and 1850.
Anti-confederates claim the Union was fighting to abolish slavery, and the South fighting to protect it.
• The Corwin Amendment protecting slavery was passed one month before the war in the U.S. House by a vote of 133-65, the Senate by a vote of 24-12; first seven seceding states didn’t vote.
The War Aims Resolution was to preserve the union, not interfere with slavery; it passed over three months into the war by the U.S. House vote of 119-2, and in the Senate by a vote of 30-5; all confederate states were already out of the union.
Anti-Confederates charge that confederate soldiers were racist.
• Many former confederate soldiers were members of the KKK or similar vigilante groups; the “anti’s” mistakenly don’t distinguish between the Klan of the Reconstruction era and the white supremacy ones of later periods; these Reconstruction groups targeted both races who supported the radical republican reconstruction government. Their purpose was to keep order and end reconstruction.
Answering the charge that all confederates were traitors: as their fathers and grandfathers of 1776, these confederates answered their state’s call in defense against an invading army. Unlike their forefathers, there was no aim of overthrowing the government in power.
If anything reminds you of slavery, it’s because you desire it to. Break a $20 bill and in your change may be some dollar bills and quarters, staring at you are three slave-owning presidents. Do you think of slavery?
Whether you’re anti or pro-Confederate, state your vestment and know America’s true history; false narratives are self-serving, fiction and entertaining, but real history is more rewarding;
My vestment: I am a descendant of several Confederate soldiers. Confederate soldiers endured over four years of war, often with little to no food, clothing, shoes, shelter or blankets; thinking they endured this to protect slavery is lunacy.
Alan Petty
Gastonia
(The letter-writer is a former resident of Siler City.)