yes there was


no there wasn't but that's because Lincoln couldn't tell his own people that he was greedy and wanted more land and money,so he played the slavery freedom card and had to stick to what he told his people,so he freed them but the truth is,he didn't give 2 sh1ts about freeing the slaves,it was just something to save his own @$$

don't get me wrong,i'm not agreeing with slavery.no there should have never been slaves BUT i think people need to look into Lincoln more and see how he really was

JT's right. Lincoln only set the slaves free to further piss off the South. He didn't care about them, really, it was just convenient.

Lincoln wasn't going to allow the South to secede, because of the amount of land, and the possibility of strange neighbors closer then Canada and Mexico.

JT,

The reason why doesn't matter so much to us folks that don't care for that flag. That flag was flown by states that had slaves. That's the bottom line. That's how it represents slavery.

Can you see why we feel the way that we do?

The Civil War was about slavery.

Thanks, I'll keep that in mind.

As far as the rebel flag, I don't care for it, and don't have one. Not so much the slavery issue as the ignorant rednecks and hillbillies, who don't want to be educated, in any way shape or form. It's a symbol of stupidity, IMO.

And sorry, Quiet, didn't catch your earlier response.

I'm guessing where Jt is, Arkansas still has a fair amount of Rebel flags flying today. I know Alabama does. I think it should all be taught in school as it is part of our history. I can certainly see how it is a trigger for the black community and would be something they would rather not see flying over our state house. It just smacks of bad reminders and even a slight slight association with it can have lasting consequences.

Thanks! I'm grabbing the link for future!

On November 6, 1860 Abraham Lincoln was elected President of the United States -- an event that outraged southern states. The Republican party had run on an anti-slavery platform, and many southerners felt that there was no longer a place for them in the Union. On December 20, 1860, South Carolina seceded. By Febrary 1, 1861, six more states -- Mississippi, Florida, Alabama, Georgia, Louisiana, and Texas -- had split from the Union. The seceded states created the Confederate States of America and elected Jefferson Davis, a Mississippi Senator, as their provisional president.

http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/aia/part4/4p2967.html

So that's the treason that Quiet talked about.

Slavery had been a part of life in America since the early colonial period and became more acceptable in the South than the North. Southern planters relied on slaves to run larger farms or plantations and make them profitable. Many slaves were also used to provide labor for the various household chores that needed to be done. This did not sit well with many northerners who felt that slavery was uncivilized and should be abolished. They were called abolitionists and thought that owning slaves was wrong for any reason. They loudly disagreed with the South's laws and beliefs concerning slavery. Yet slavery had been a part of the Southern way of life for well over 200 years and was protected not only by state laws, but Federal law as well. The Constitution of the United States guaranteed the right to own property and protected everyone against the seizure of property. A slave was viewed as property in the South and was important to the economics of the Southern cotton industry. The people of the Southern states did not appreciate Northern people, especially the abolitionists, telling them that slave ownership was a great wrong. This created a great amount of debate, mistrust, and misunderstanding.

As the nation grew in size, so did the opportunities for expansion westward. Many felt that slavery should be allowed in the new territories such as Kansas and Missouri, while others were set against it. This led to "bleeding Kansas", a bitter war that pitted neighbor against neighbor. In 1859, a radical abolitionist from Kansas named John Brown raided the Federal armory at Harpers Ferry, Virginia, in the hopes of supplying weapons to an army of slaves that would revolt against their southern masters. A number of people were taken hostage and several killed, among them the mayor of Harpers Ferry. Brown was cornered with several of his followers in a fire engine house, first by Virginia militia and then by Federal troops sent to arrest him and his raiders. These troops, commanded by Colonel Robert E. Lee, stormed the building and captured Brown and several of his men. Brown was tried for his crimes, found guilty, and hung in Charlestown. Though John Brown's raid had failed, it fueled the passions of northern abolitionists who made him a martyr. It was reported that bells tolled in sympathy to John Brown in northern cities on the day he was executed. This inflamed passions in the South where southern leaders used the incident as another reminder how little the South's interests were represented in Federal law, labeled as sympathetic to runaways and anti-slavery organizations.

The debate became very bitter. Southern politicians outwardly charged that their voices were not being heard in congress. Some Southern states wanted to secede, or break away from the United States of America and govern themselves. Emotions reached a fever pitch when Abraham Lincoln was elected President of the United States in 1860. He was a member of the Republican Party and vowed to keep the country united and the new western territories free from slavery. Many Southerners, who were Democrats, were afraid that Lincoln was not sympathetic to their way of life and would not treat them fairly. The growing strength of the Republican Party, viewed by many as the party friendly to abolitionists and northern businessmen, and the election of the party's candidate was the last straw. Southern governors and political leaders called for state referendums to consider articles of secession. South Carolina was the first state to officially secede from the United States soon after the election and they were followed by six other Southern states. These states joined together and formed a new nation which they named the Confederate States of America. They elected Jefferson Davis, a Democratic senator and champion of states rights from Mississippi, as the first president.



http://www.nps.gov/archive/gett/gettkidz/cause.htm

but you can't actually have the flag represent slavery because some of the northern states that bordered southern states had slaves too because when slaves escaped and crossed into the north,the bordering states got,guess what? free slaves!

also there were some northern states that when they caught slaves escaping from the south,they would actually send them back to the south because they wanted no part of it.

btw if yall wonder why i have such strong feelings on this stuff,it's because i have had ancestors that have bled in every war since the civil war for this land.from both the south to the cherokee indians.i do my own research on it because everything they teach you in school is crap.like when they teach kids "Columbus discovered America",how the hell you going to discover land that already has people there?