Seccession and the subsequent founding of the Southern Confederacy was brought about by a relatively small percentage of southern firebrands with the primary interest of protecting and advancing slavery. The issue of states rights was a very thin veil covering the underlying subject. Unfair trade tariffs and other practices which favored the north were irritants but not significant enough to take us over the brink as did the fear that the federal government would move to abolish slavery. Proof lies in the confederate constitution in which the only major difference from the US constitution was the guarantee of slavery. But did this in itself make anyone a "Racist" ?

It would be difficult to convince me that a majority of southerners were any more racist than their northern counterparts. Perhaps since there were so many more blacks (regardless of whether free or slave) living in the south, our southern ancestors were more accepting of their being than those up north where there was much less opportunity for social contact of any kind. Of course while Virginia required freed slaves to leave the state, was it not also an exhibition of bold faced racism that several northern states prohibited the migration of former slaves at the end of the war? Who's kidding who? Racism has been around forever and will probably be there until we are all one big brown race - at which time we will find something else to disagree about.

But more specifically about the war, it was undoubtedly one of the most boneheaded ever moves made by mankind. Seccession began with Lincoln's election. But Lincoln wasnt an abolitionist and only wanted to preserve the union - which he did by using every rescource at his disposal including the Emancipation Proclamation years later when it became advantageous in the sense that such diplomacy would reap military benefit by helping keep England and France out of the war. If you read some of the words attributed to Lincoln, it would appear that he really had no overriding fond regard for the negro. If left alone, he may well have proven to be one of the south's best allies in that his primary interests simply were not in the issue of slavery.

Militarily, the south had no realistic chance of prevailing over the north. No doubt, top to bottom, we had the best personnel and were primarily fighting on our own real estate. But we were usually so outnumbered and so poorly equipped that we couldn't follow up our victories and make them really count. Our only hopes were a longshot knockout punch or the north's simply loosing interest and going home. The audacity of Gen. R.E. Lee coupled with the ineptitude of several northern generals were the primary ingredients which prolonged the war past its first year. To the average citizen, the war was a defense of our homeland. I, for one, believe most slaves would have gladly joined with their masters in such a noble effort. So where's the rascism? One might say that it lies in the fact that we didn't let them, but that in turn lies in the fact that most southern whites were raised under the impression that the negro was not his intellectual equal and thus generally inferior. But is that rascism? It certainly constitutes ignorance but I don't see it as rascism. That was a commonly held misconception and, lacking proof to the contrary, who could be blamed for believing what you have been raised to believe?

So, did the CSA, its flag, or its leaders stand for the perpetuation of slavery? Yes. Absolutely and without question. But to the original question, did the same stand for rascism? No. At least not in my eyes. We simply can't judge our ancestors' beliefs by the standards of today. They weren't the same. And having said as much, we need to honor those who defended their homeland and way of life even if the government under which they were living was fighting for a principle which we today hold as less than perfect. And that's why I talk and tell my friends, family, and even strangers what I know of my ancestors', uncles' and cousins' feats with the 1st and 2nd Va. Cav., and the 18th Va. Inf, and the 13th Va. L. Art, and the 19th Va. H. Art, and Co. B, CS Marines, and the Augusta Homeguard. I tell them about the GGF who started out a captain and ended up a private, and the one buried in a mass grave at Finn's Point, the GGG Uncle buried at Woodstock, the ones who were captured and survived, the ones who were wounded and hobbled for life or wore out more than one wooden leg farming, and on and on. These are things that should not be allowed to become lost in time !