this should keep you all busy for awhile Speech 102
Persuasive Speech
Confederate Flag
Thousands of American soldiers died while charging behind the confederate flag during the bloodiest fighting in American history. One-hundred and forty years after the Civil war, the confederate flag is now at the center of a new war being battled our between two groups of people with two very different views. One group says the Confederate flag is a symbol of our nation’s history and heritage; a symbol of rebellion. Still, others say that it represents slavery and racism.
In this current war, there are no bullets flying or cannons firing, only angry words and bitter feelings. Two groups battle relentlessly, with a stubbornness that can only be found in the South. Despite strong opposition, the Confederate flag is undoubtedly a part of our nation’s history and should be revered as such.
Before one is able to make a fair judgment about the meaning of the Confederate flag, a bit of history is needed. When Lincoln was elected President, he and the U.S. Congress immediately passed the Morrill Tariff, which was the highest import tax in U.S. history. This tariff doubled the import tax rate from twenty percent to forty percent. This tax would bankrupt many Southerners (“Preserving Our Heritage…�).
Immediately after the election of Abraham Lincoln, South Carolina’s legislature convened and unanimously voted to secede from the Union. During the next two months, Mississippi, Florida, Alabama, Georgia, Louisiana, and Texas also seceded. By March of 1861, the seceded states had already established a government and Constitution, which closely resembled the federal Constitution, prohibited the African slave trade but allowed interstate trading of slaves. By May, Virginia, Arkansas, Tennessee, and North Carolina had seceded (“Confederate States…). Thus, the Confederacy was born, arrayed against the national government during the American Civil War. As their national symbol, they chose the Confederate Flag, with thirteen stars representing those states in the confederacy plus Kentucky and Missouri (Streufert. Par.3).
Judging form the history of the start of the war, one might assume that the war started because the Southern states wanted to keep their slaves. However, to say that the Confederate states seceded to protect their unusual foundation says nothing about the motivations of individual Confederate soldiers. On the road to reunion, ex-confederates not only agreed that they were better off without slavery; they almost denied that it had anything to do with the war. Forty years after the war had ended, Basil Lanneau Gildersleeve, a well-known classical theorist and veteran of the Confederate cavalry wrote, “That the cause we fought for and our brothers died for was the cause of civil liberty and not the cause of human slavery, is a thesis which we feel ourselves bound to maintain whenever our motives are challenged or misunderstood, if only for our children’s sake.� (qtd. In Reed)
Let’s get down to what the flag really means. There is no inherent meaning to colors or patterns on a piece of cloth. A flag is a “text� to which different “interpretive communities� bring their own meanings. “The so-called Rebel flag is the flag of the south,� says reverend Walter Bowie, “the symbol of many good things about our culture and history that are dear to the hearts of Southerners, white black, and red.� (qtd. in Reed).
The flag itself doesn’t stand for slavery and racism, but some groups made it to be about that. Those that have experienced hate crimes against them by these extremist groups that use the Confederate flag as their symbol will undoubtedly have a different view of the flag. Narrow-minded groups like neo-Nazis, skinheads, and rednecks have changed the flag’s meaning throughout the years. We all know that not everyone is like that. To take a piece of America’s history and desecrate it like that is totally un-American and goes against everything that the confederate flag stands for.
Supporters of the confederate flag include groups like the SCV (Sons of Confederate Veterans). They identify themselves as a heritage organization and are proponents of the Confederate e flag. They describe the Confederate flag’s meaning as such: “The flag represents the honor of all who willingly made a sacrifice for their state and nation that few today could even imagine, much less emulate….The bloodstained banner helps us remember those who made the ultimate sacrifice, many still buried in long-forgotten, unmarked graves.� (qtd. in Reed)
“When I think about the flag, I think about the Ku Klux Klan and when they came along here burning crosses in my yard—they had that flag,� remembers Unita Blackwell, the mayor of Mayersville, Mississippi (qtd. in Reed). To some people, the Confederate flag does represent slavery and racism, but one has to understand that it is the groups who use it as such that make it that way. Author Barry Hannah says it is “a damn crying shame we can’t celebrate them because of the Klan and idiots that began grabbing the flag.� (qtd. in Reed)
Others share Hannah’s opinion. South Carolina State Senator Glenn McConnell said, “The flag is the emblem of our ancestors. It’s the flag they saw across the battlefield and is an emblem of unity and now it flies as a war memorial for those folks who went off to battle.� (qtd. in Reed)
Many People are familiar with the debate about the Confederate Flag flying over the top of the South Carolina State Capitol building. After a heated debate between two sides,
In recent years, much controversy has surrounded the design of the Mississippi State flag. The Mississippi Flag hosts a Confederate Flag in the upper left corner with red, white, and blue stripes surrounding it. This has been the state flag since 1894
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