The Non-historical Basis for the War on Confederate Symbolism
The Civil War was caused by slavery. The Civil War was fought over slavery. These two historical contentions represent the essence of our difficulty in seeing America’s bloodiest war in its proper context. One of these statements is a historical fact. The other is a historical fiction, or at least an incomplete fact. And the primary problem today is that many do not recognize the difference between the two statements at all and thus legitimize a fiction by equating it with a fact. How we got here has been a topic of interest on this blog before . But, more recently, three incidents in particular have come to my attention that require me as a thinking person to respond, clarify and attempt to correct the subtle, fundamental error made by many today. First, there is the initiative by the mayor of New Orleans to rid the city of its public Confederate statues and memorials. According to the mayor’s office, this is an attempt to redress the statues placed in the late nineteent