Template:Wikipedia:Featured Editorial/July

From Dixiepedia: The PC-Free Encyclopedia

Why Is Heritage Defense Important?

Immediately following the events of the War for Southern Independence, the Southern States (the former States of the Confederacy) went into a period of Reconstruction, which is commonly said to have lasted until 1876. This is because that is the time when the actual federal troops were removed from the Southern States. Prior to that time, the Southern States were imposed to martial law, and a rule by the federal army.

During the period of time that the South was under direct Reconstruction (with the actual presence of federal troops), the Southern people were subjected to heavy abuses in the Northern-controlled Congress. In addition to confiscatory taxation rates, which fully benefited Northern interests at the expense of the Southern people, there were also strict rules concerning former Confederate high-ranking officials. Those who were in the Confederate government could no longer serve in elected positions, nor could they even vote.

Meanwhile, during this same time period, there were restrictions on depictions of the Confederacy. For instance, it was routine that men wearing Confederate army jackets were arrested. Also, flags used by the Confederacy were expressly forbidden. This was all a heavy-handed attempt by the Northern-controlled government to replace the Southern people’s devotion to the Confederacy (and the causes for which they fought) with a new reverence for the symbols of the United States (the very government that these people had chosen to separate themselves from).

While the federal troops were there, constant venom was spewed by Thaddeus Stevens and Charles Sumner (among others of their ilk) against the Southern people. These people had an unhidden hatred for the South and their customs, and could not understand why the Southern people held so hard onto what they believed in—including their devotion to the Confederacy, its symbols and flags, and its former leaders. Stevens and the other radical Republican leaders in Congress raged at the fact that the Southern people would give up their heritage, no matter how oppressive the federal government’s Reconstruction programs were on them. continued...