The rights argument is trivial to rebut, just like you did. Pick any letter of secession sent to Congress and you’ll likely find the institution of slavery listed as the top concern.

Here go Mississippi:

A Declaration of the Immediate Causes which Induce and Justify the Secession of the State of Mississippi from the Federal Union.

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.

I want to start by saying you’re about 90% correct, and I’m glad that people have found your post to be very educational (bad experiences in the past with being misunderstood).

In both pre-civil war era and the civil rights era, the south wanted to have their cake and fuck it too. They were crying ‘states rights’ when we established the Missouri Compromise, but whined about the weak federal government with regards to the fugitive slave act. One of the primary drivers for the Emancipation Proclamation was actually escaped slaves after the outbreak of the civil war. The North didn’t know what to do with slaves that escaped, were liberated, or surrendered (slaves were sometimes conscripted instead of the slaveholder fighting). It was a situation that was starting to get unmanageable because of political pressure and the number of slaves, so essentially the Emancipation Proclamation was a last ditch effort to divert Southern forces into defending their slaves while solving a real problem in the North (it actually was fairly successful in this sense).

In the civil rights era, it was states rights when it came to integration, but a failure of federal to allow MLK’s nonviolent direct action to occur (yea, I know about COINTELPRO; perception vs reality etc etc).

The connection between the 2 and the modern day? They were all conservatives. The “Democrats” during the civil war were the same as the Republican party from the 1920s to now. The hypocritical rhetorical methods being used by conservatives to argue against the right to abortion has existed since Locke published Two Treatises of Government.

You just hit me with that fat education. My brain thanks you.

My mother, who was educated in the 90s in the south, was taught the “war of northern aggression” was fought because the north was paying less for cotton than Europe and tarriffing exports to Europe.

Not that I believe or ever googled any of this.

Don’t forget that Confederate states could not make laws against slavery via their constitution.

It’s definitely a blow for the “the civil war wasn’t about slavery” crowd lol. Like I’m all for not judging the past by modern morals and acting like confederates weren’t as human as the rest of us… but pretending the civil war had nothing to do with slavery is simply a farce.

Also check out Alexander H. Stephen’s (Vice-President of the Confederate States) Cornerstone speech.

“The new constitution has put at rest, forever, all the agitating questions relating to our peculiar institution African slavery as it exists amongst us the proper status of the negro in our form of civilization. This was the immediate cause of the late rupture and present revolution.”

“Our new government is founded upon exactly the opposite idea; its foundations are laid, its corner-stone 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.”

It’s amazing the amount of mental gymnastics slavery apologists commit to considering the wealth of primary sources describing how the succession and war were directly related to slavery.

Fucking yikes Mississippi

I mean, what can one expect from a state who’s state flag was this until less than 3 years ago?

Look at this guy using the hard R-word.

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The states who are pro choice do not associate with a loser’s flag.

And unsurprisingly they found ways to keep their slaves until it was properly outlawed in the 1940s, not because it was the right thing to do, but because the administration feared that the US treatment of black people would be used in propaganda against them.

I’d say “stay classy” but the US has never been classy in its short but bloody history.

Oh yeah we’re gonna go visit Oregon later on this year too

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