Jan. 23, 2000

South Carolina Flag Flap is Based on Misconceptions

Hullabaloo about a Confederate flag flying “over the South Carolina Capitol” is silly for several reasons – all arising from misconceptions.

The offensive building in Columbia – bearing scars from General Sherman’s canons -- is not the state capitol. It is an officially-designated historical monument established when the seat of government was moved to a new capitol building a few years ago.

Half-wit pundits make a big thing of linking the flag to racial hate but concede it is OK to show the flag at museums, graves and homes. Thus, they are hoisted on their own petards (look it up in the dictionary).

Linkage might have been intended in 1962 when the Confederate flag was hoisted over the previous capitol for the first time since the War Between the States – a.k.a. the Civil War to Yankees and the War of Northern Aggression to sons of Dixie.

There is little doubt that the flag was raised then as a sign of displeasure with Federal government and U.S. Supreme court dictates for racial integration. South Carolinians started the War Between the States to try and escape Federal interference in states’ rights recognized in the U.S. Constitution.

Display of the Confederate flag was not an issue in the modern civil rights movement. Certainly, the real issue of racial equality was more important than symbols of past prejudice.

It should give grim satisfaction to African-Americans searching for grievances that a supposed opponent of integration continues to emphasize its failures past and present.

I frequently guide historical tours of Punta Gorda. Upon arrival at the old Atlantic Coast Line depot – on the National Register of Historic Places – I point out the reminders of past segregation.

“Colored” and “White” signs. Separate waiting rooms. Separate toilets. Separate drinking fountains. Separate entrances with a seven-foot wall between to make sure there is no unintentional contact between the races.

I explain that these reminders are monuments to the courage and perseverance of pre-1964 African-Americans in overcoming the unfair obstacles raised against them. Often, African-Americans on the tour thank me for a positive view of relics that previously bothered them.

If all evidence of historical oppression is erased, the magnitude of the struggle for right will be unknown and unappreciated.

It should be remembered that slavery existed longer under Old Glory than under the Stars and Bars. The phrase “sold down the river” refers to the practice of northerners along the Mississippi to capture fleeing slaves and, for a reward, send the blacks in chains back to their owners.

Seeds of the ensuing war were sown by industrialists of the north who felt cheap labor of the south was unfair competition. Southern states resented Congressional attempts to usurp states’ rights to govern their own economies. This conflict goes on still today.

Ironically, slavery was declining when it was chosen as the sin justifying economic struggle. Very few southerners owned slaves. Plantation owners were going broke as Great Britain introduced cotton culture in its colonies.

The greatest sin of planters was in turning excess slaves loose to fend for themselves. Left alone, the institution of slavery would have disappeared gradually in a decade or so.

Abraham Lincoln thought that slavery was immoral and was not bashful in saying so. Nevertheless, the main issue to him was preservation of the Union and resolution of economic differences amicably.

He expressed those views August 22, 1862, in a letter to Horace Greely, an influential New York City newspaper publisher. Greely was a strong supporter of the Free Soil movement and encouraged anti-slavery sentiment. President Lincoln wrote:

“My paramount object in this struggle is to save the Union, and is not either to save or to destroy slavery. If I could save the Union without freeing any slave, I would do it; and if I could save it by freeing all the slaves, I would do it; and if I could do it by freeing some and leaving others alone, I would also do that.”

Indeed, he followed the last mentioned course on Jan. l, 1863, by freeing slaves only in those states “in rebellion.” Slavery in the border states was left in place. Lincoln and his generals thought emancipation would inspire slaves to rise up against their masters.

Most blacks stayed put. Some joined the Confederate Army on the promise of freedom by that route. Some former slaves in the north who had already earned their freedom joined the Union Army.

In retrospect, the great tragedy of the war was that it was unnecessary, The natural flow of events was on the way to changing society – just as it is today.

Lindsey Williams is a Sun-Herald columnist and can be reached at linwms@lindseywilliams.org