Out of all the failed nations in the world, there is perhaps not a single one more wholly misunderstood than the former Confederate States of America. Just the mention of it evokes strong positive or negative emotions in many people, particularly in the US. But those emotions will all come from different, often contradictory ideas of what the Confederacy was, even on the same side. In fact, there are really four contradictory groups of people who have a strong opinion one way or the other. We have:
Group A: Those who claim the Confederacy was White Supremacist, and hate it for that reason;
Group B: Those who claim the Confederacy was White Supremacist, and love it for that reason;
Group C: Those who claim the Confederacy was NOT White Supremacist, and hate it for that reason, and
Group D: Those who claim the Confederacy was NOT White Supremacist, and love it for that reason.
(There are folks that will claim they hate the CSA solely because it "committed treason against the US", but even they will at the end of the day fall into one of those groups, usually Group A)
These four groups, while largely contradictory, ALL have a substantial amount of members. Clearly, something is not right here. So this week I thought I'd try to explain the truth behind all the lies.
First, I called the Confederacy a 'failed nation'. Obviously, it failed, nobody disputes that, though by how much it failed is up for debate. After all, not many completely failed nations still have their battle flags flying over freeways and their national flags outside residences. But, that's a debate for another time. The point is, it failed, and everyone agrees it did.
But right off the bat, some people will take issue with the second part of that title, the 'nation' part of it. There are those that will claim the Confederacy was not a true nation, because secession was illegitimate. But, it WAS a nation. The US Constitution didn't, and still doesn't, explicitly ban secession. Those who disagree with immediately point to Article I, Section 10 of the Constitution, specifically, the first part of the first sentence of it, which says "No State shall enter into any Treaty, Alliance, or Confederation". They will see the word "Confederation", and proudly declare themselves the correct side.
And that is true, no state is allowed to form any alliance or 'confederation' with any other state. But the Southern States didn't do that. They just left. Yes, they THEN formed their own 'confederation', but NOT WITHIN THE UNION. And indeed, nowhere in that Section or anywhere else in the Constitution does it explicitly say states cannot leave the Union. What it DOES say, however, in the 10th Amendment, is that anything not EXPLICITY mentioned in the Constitution (for example, 'secession' or leaving the Union), IS RESERVED AS A POWER FOR THE STATES. Secession is therefore a power of the States.
Which makes sense, the Constitution was written by a group of people who had just seceded from their mother nation to form their own country, and the colonies were rightly worried about the prospect of joining another Union from which they could not peacefully leave. As such, the Constitution was written to allow secession so as to appease the hesitant colonies.
This, by the way, means that even the name 'Civil War' is a misnomer, because civil wars are fought within one nation, which this War was not. As a pro-Confederate, I prefer the terms 'War for Southern Independence' (though itself a slight misnomer, as the South was already independent, you could argue they were fighting for their independence), or 'War of Northern Aggression'. However, a good neutral term is simply 'The War Between The States', or in circles where people will know what you are referring to, simply 'the War'.
But now to the main act, which is of course, the racial argument, particularly, slavery. I'll just say it: the South didn't leave over slavery. To say the Confederacy was formed due solely to slavery is to say the United States was formed solely over the British imposing a tax on tea. Both were no doubt very big issues in the movement, but were not the ONLY issues.
Now, people will bring up the Secession Documents saying why each state left, and its true that some of them mention slavery. But they should be informed that of the 11 documents successfully drafted, only 4 even mention slavery, and those that do refer to it in the Territories. Because, you see, the South didn't secede to preserve slavery in either the South or the Territories. But the Supreme Court had issued that upon becoming states, territories could chose whether to be slave or free. Lincoln and the Republican Party basically said they wouldn't heed the Supreme Court's ruling. And so the South said, "if you won't heed the way our Union works, we want no part in it."
So no, the South didn't leave over slavery. They left over Lincoln and his party trying to trample the Constitution.
Now, all of those Secession Documents do stress the need for White dominance, but that was a very common trope at the time, in both North and South. In fact, one could argue the North was MORE pro-White, which is why Groups C and D exist.
So was the Confederacy racist? Yes. Was the Union racist? Yes. Was the Confederacy any more racist than the Union? No.
So, the question arises to for Imperium, why care about the CSA if it wasn't this bastion of White dominance? Because, the American Fascist Imperium is more similar to the CSA than one might initially believe. The CSA was a nation of White people, people who were sick and tired of being mistreated. The Imperium's America will be the same. A nation of White people sick and tired of being mistreated.
And Confederate culture became Southern culture, which is responsible for some of the most American tropes of the modern day. Barbecues, country music, patriotism. All of these will continue in the Imperium's America, and so it is important we honor the part of the country where they all came from, and that part of the country's nationalist movement that, while a failure, was a sign that White people, when mistreated for long enough, will rise up to protect what they hold dear.
Written by,
@csa_appreciator
Director of Truth in the American Fascist Imperium
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