Question #6

The rebels fought a fierce battle for over four years, won many battles, and at times seemed they might win the war, until the battle of Gettysburg, and the victory at Vicksburg, where General Grant gained control of the Mississippi river and was able to cut off food and supplies to the Confederate soldiers.  If the Confederates had won, how do you think life in the United States would be different today?

Question #5

If you feel that this is not a symbol of hatred, how do you feel when hate groups show up waving this flag?  (like skin heads, white supremacists and Nazi sympathizers)

Question #4

Heritage, Not Hate:  Explain this to me.  (The biggest factor in the succession of the states was their belief that slavery was about to be abolished.  How is this not hate-based?  And if you support the Confederacy, how are you not supporting hatred?)

Question #3

Slave holders with 20 or more slaves were not required to go to war.  (The slave holding aristocracy was a relatively small minority, most of the rebels were struggling to make ends meet.  With the exception of high-ranking military officers, most of the upper class remained safe and secure back on the plantation, while those boys died or came home with missing limbs and bad mental health).  How do you feel that wealthy planters put a plan in motion to go to war, and sent their lower class brothers to fight for their interests? 

Question #2

Do you see a contradiction in this photo (old glory alongside a rebel flag?)  Discuss! 

Question #1:

The Confederate states succeeded from the union, elected its own president, printed its own money, and took up arms against the federal government.  Some people might say this was an act of treason.  Do you agree or disagree?  What are your feelings on South Carolina and the other states succeeding from the union?  Do you feel there could have been another way to handle these differences, or was this the only way to solve them?

How It Began

The primary cause of the South's secession was the election of Abraham Lincoln in 1860.  Lincoln's election fed the perception that Southern interests were losing control of the federal government, and that this government would eventually suppress the institution of slavery or outlaw it altogether.

The succession Convention of south carolina in 1860 produced a document entitled, "Declaration of the Immediate Causes Which Induce and Justify the Secession of South Carolina from the Federal Union".

The Declaration asserted that the Northern states had plotted to change the original scope of the Constitution -- namely that:

• the Northern states were failing to return fugitive slaves, in violation of their obligations under Article Four of the Constitution.
• the Northern states tolerated abolitionists and insurrectionists (such as John Brown) who incited slaves in the South to rebel.
• misguided political and religious beliefs in the North made future sectional unity impossible.
• some states were elevating persons "incapable of becoming citizens" (i.e. free blacks) and using their votes to support anti-slavery policies.
• the Republican Party was planning to wage a war against slavery upon taking office in March 1861.

Basically, the instition of slavery was a huge motivating factor in the start of the civil war.  Using this information as a foundation, we will not dispute the cause of the war, I hope we are all in agreement why it happened.