(July 10, 2015 at 7:01 am)Nope Wrote: Poor southerners still vote against their own interest because they believe they might, possibly be rich one day. It wouldn't surprise me if poor southeners also had the same feelings about owning slaves. Remember the same men who fought for the Confederts are the same ones who created Jim Crow laws that prevented blacks from actually being equal to whites.
Some of my ancestors must have fought for the Confederates but I feel no need to honor them. They would have had to have been idiots to not know their leaders were fighting over slavery. That doesn't mean that they weren't manipulated by rich southerners but why would I celebrate that?
The flag coming down is a good, small step but there is so much more to address not just in the south but the entire nation
Aside from their pathetic need to feel superior to someone and from whatever genuine patriotism may have motivated them, it's worth noting that many poor southerners signed on to fight out of a sense of self-interest as they understood perfectly well that they could get priced out of work by the sudden existence of free blacks entering the labor pool.
Of course, many poor whites in the North opposed the war for similar reasons -- Irish immigrants especially.
