Confederate Statues Were Never Really About Preserving History

I think Jerry Sexton said [1] it best in defense of the KKK memorial in the Tennessee capitol building.

> It was not against the law to own slaves back then. Who knows, maybe some of us will be slaves one of these days. Laws change.

Tear them all down.

[1] https://www.wsmv.com/video/tn-legislator-makes-controversial...

The idea that the US Confederacy was about anything other than slavery is utterly farcical after just a cursory reading of primary sources from that era. Not the least of which is The Cornerstone Speech, an oration given by Confederate Vice President Alexander H. Stephens in Savannah, Georgia, on March 21, 1861.

The key excerpt is this, “Its [The Confederacy’s] foundations are laid, its cornerstone rests upon the great truth, that the negro is not equal to the white man; that slavery—subordination to the superior race—is his natural and normal condition. This, our new government, is the first, in the history of the world, based upon this great physical, philosophical, and moral truth”

Source: https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cornerstone_Speech

Some other good primary sources are the states’ own declarations of succession. Here’s the opening paragraphs from Mississippi’s:

“In the momentous step which our State has taken of dissolving its connection with the government of which we so long formed a part, it is but just that we should declare the prominent reasons which have induced our course.

Our position is thoroughly identified with the institution of slavery-- the greatest material interest of the world. Its labor supplies the product which constitutes by far the largest and most important portions of commerce of the earth. These products are peculiar to the climate verging on the tropical regions, and by an imperious law of nature, none but the black race can bear exposure to the tropical sun. These products have become necessities of the world, and a blow at slavery is a blow at commerce and civilization. That blow has been long aimed at the institution, and was at the point of reaching its consummation. There was no choice left us but submission to the mandates of abolition, or a dissolution of the Union, whose principles had been subverted to work out our ruin.”

Source: http://www.civilwar.com/resources/government/confederate-sta...

The other states’ declarations all contain similar language. This isn’t oral history, editorial, or “spin”. These are official government documents that are widely available.

People who put forth that the US Civil War was not primarily about slavery, that the Confederacy’s own self-declared foundations were anything other than the subjugation of humans based on their race, are either ignorant or arguing in bad faith.