Friday, February 14, 2014

Slavery in the North - Letter to the Editor

Prattville Dragoon Charlie Graham wrote a letter to the editor of the Montgomery Advertiser recently regarding the bias in the media in their misrepresentation of the issue of slavery as strictly a Southern historical issue.



Slavery in the North as bad as it was in the South

A recent writer, almost telling the truth, theorizes that the indelible association of the Confederacy with slavery discourages people from celebrating the Confederacy today.  Why does this indelible association exist?

Why was the recently award winning move “Twelve Years a Slave” depicted in Louisiana?  A similar story could have been set in the North a hundred years earlier just as veraciously.  A truthful documentary could easily be made about the 150 years that slavery was exploited in the New England states, including New York, Massachusetts, et al, prior to its short-lived existence in Alabama and Mississippi.

Why hasn’t there been a movie made about Congress authorizing George Washington to pick the location for constructing our Capitol, which he did in close proximity to several large plantations for easy access to many slaves?  Our Capitol was built with slave labor.

The media addresses slavery in only a Southern context when it was just as rampant in the North for a much longer period of time than in most Southern states.

The writer attributes the causes of the war to secession and slavery.  Secession only was the cause.  The true catalysts for secession can be found in the few differences in the Confederate and U.S. Constitutions.   Slavery and secession were legal by both. The Confederate Constitution specifically prohibited the central government from meddling in private enterprise.  Imagine no stimulus packages, no union favoritism and no redistribution of wealth.

Agenda-driven mendacities pervade our American history forum.

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