Yes, the North, which had as much anti-miscgenation laws as anywhere, all the sudden became so loathing of slavery they all went to war? Not a single text book- even in these pc days- claims that. Lincoln's quotes on the matter dispel it, and the lack of participation- can you say, DRAFT- from northerns tells you all…

And yet that's a huge part of the Northern victory being celebrated all over this page. Carpetbaggers—cool or no? Punitive restrictions by the US government that went on for DECADES, contributing to the poverty and under education of many southerners cited by many posters on this page—cool or no?

Friend of mine sent me a picture of a Veterans day parade in Tennessee and the Confederate flag being carried by a group dressed up like Confederate soldiers. Now before everyone gets their panties in a uproar, the guys were African American.

Not actually Southern myself. I was born and raised a Yankee, however I am speaking truth to the power of Yankee Privilege because it needs to be done.

As I pointed out to these others, that have an extremely limited knowledge of history, no one in the North would have fought to free the slaves. Lincoln is on record as stating it-yet somehow they try to whitewash these quotes- and the same armies that pillaged the south, then went on to use those same tactics in the…

You'll get different stories. To try to characterize the South as having one opinion on the Civil War would be far from accurate. For what it is worth, I would say Reconstruction was the low point.

Unless you came from a very wealthy family, there's zero reason to believe your southern ancestors owned slaves. I appreciate that many southerners today are told that, by nature of being southern, they're complicit in slavery, but that has no basis in fact.

Meh. I've always been the "Don't tread on me" type, but I would never fly the Gadsden Flag over my house in DC because a whole lot of people associate it with crappy right-wing ideology.

Good on you, you've pissed off more Yankees today than Hank Williams Jr.

I'm going to answer this post and this post with the same picture:

If Southerners are not overtly racist, then they won't display the Confederate flag. It's a symbol of slavery, pure and simple.

a rack of ribs on a red, white and blue field. I like it. I like it a lot.

I understand not having Yankee pride, being a carpetbagger is nothing to celebrate.

Also lost all your property and money because it was stolen/burned by the Union Army and can't feed your family and now you're starving with no roof over your head, boo hoo.

Treason to you and I, but things weren't so simple back then. There was still the question of supremacy of state's rights or the federal government in the years leading up to the Civil War. In the eyes of the Confederates, it was not treason to secede from the federal government. Rather, they felt they were citizens…

Guess what else symbolises treason:

You seem to be confusing the state endorsement of this symbol from the individual expression of this symbol. People should have every right to wear it or fly it or whatever. Once the state endorses it, it's a different matter. If you cannot see the difference between these two things then the argument is over.

2001, actually. And there are still a very few people around the state who are pissed about it. They are dying off, though.

Revisionist history doesn't work. It doesn't make it any less egregious, but they weren't seen as citizens.

Disclaimer: this poster is a Damn Yankee. Southerners will understand the distinction.