How do citizens in the Southern states of America feel about the American Civil War today?

Question

I am a slightly keen scholar of North American history, and was recently reading up on the civil war, 1861-1865. I was curious to ask how people in America feel about the civil war today, especially those in the states of the old Confederacy. Are you pleased/relieved that Abe Lincoln kept the union together? How do you feel about the Confederate flag today - expression of Southern identity or symbol of racism and slavery? Any resentment toward the Union states now? War is rarely a good thing, and some might say Civil Wars are the most damaging to any country. But sometimes perhaps they're necessary, & can even make you stronger (as I reckon it did in this case for America). Plus, you could argue the South is fully integrated back into the U.S.A. having provided many of the most recent Presidents - due to population shifts the South seems to have increased importance in the electoral college?

Anyway, what do you think? Agree with any of the above?

Answer 1

We still regard to that skirmish as The War of Northern Aggression. I've watched Gone With the Wind so many times, hoping the ending comes out different, but alas.

While I am pleased that the Nation managed to come back together afterwards, I'm a little dismayed at what could only be classified as revisionist history. Too many people don't know or want to discuss the real reasons leading up to the war.

I harbor no ill-will towards the Northern states, though I do give a good ribbing to any good-natured Yankees that I encounter.

I do still admire the Confederate flag and am sorry that other groups decided to adopt it as their banner. It has definitely put an indelible stain on the Rebel heritage and that's a shame.

On a lighter note...
Most people believe that Lee surrendered to Grant at Appomattox.
They did meet at Appomattox... during their talk Grant asked to see Lee's sword so he could admire it better. Then the scalawag Grant refused to give it back. Lee, being the revered and polite gentleman he had always been, simply decided not to ask for it back.
And that's how the war ended.

Answer 2

You see? They're STILL making excuses for starting the war, refusing to give up slavery, tearing the Union apart for the sake of the enslavement of a people for the economic gain of an elite class... etc etc.
Northern Agression? ROFL! The stars and bars is a symbol to every black person wherever it appears of hatred and repression.
I do believe that many in the South would say - look, it's over, ok? We're Americans. But you can see from your answerers from the South how many of them still buy into the line that White Southern spin doctors started after losing the war. The victors do not write the history alone folks, and in the case of the Civil War, it was re-written by Southerners as it still is being so done today.
Yes, NORTHERNER, and glad the North kicked the darn Rebels asses and put the country back together again.
Had a Southern hater NOT assasinated Lincoln, reconstruction would have been a lot easier for the South, and you know it.

Answer 3

Many of us have sympathy towards the confederacy, but it doesnt means we hate blacks. Many show the confederate flag as symbol of Southern Pride, but some muthas use it to rub it off on African-Americans' faces. Many people complain about Bush, but the ways Lincoln did thinng he could be consider a dictator, but he kept the Union together. Actually there are resenments towards yankees, not the union itself. It might take another 100 years to get the south fully integrated back to the Union, the civil war totally changed the South, from the land of the country's wealthy people to a hellhole full of hillbillies.


ARKANSAS

Answer 4

You mean the war is over?

We don't dwell on it in the South, any more than they do in the North. Or any more than the fact that we succeeded in revolting and breaking away from Great Britain is daily on the minds of the citizens there. We get rankled when we are accused of still fighting it, although the states rights question is played out nearly every day in some usurpation of our Constitutional rights by the federal government. When I read about the historical outcomes of many, many other civil wars in many, many other lands including GB, where the victors invariably imprisoned and executed the vanquished, I feel an IMMENSE sense of pride in good ol' America's accomplishment of coming back together as a fully united country again without any "bloody assizes."

The only people for whom the war is still an issue are those who want to keep the friction going for purposes of their own political or social aggrandizement.

Answer 5

To preface, I'm from Louisiana and have a degree in history. I have always thought the war was a tragedy for many reasons. First, it was not necessary to free the slaves because the Southern economy could not continue to support slavery for much longer. We could argue over how long, but either way it was on the way out. I can think of few things more horrible than slavery, but I think there was an ulterior motive regarding forcing the ideals of Northern states on the South. To most of us (White Southerners, anyway), the flag is neither a symbol of racisim or pride, unless it is tied to a school mascot or something. There are always some groups who misuse symbols, but that can happen with anything. I think Lincoln could have handled things differently and not forced the issue and avoided the war. We still don't like Yankees, but that doesn't have anything to do with the war...they talk funny and have funny names for things. Everybody knows that any carbonated beverage is a Coke, regardless of its flavor, not a pop, like my Nebraska cousins call it! Seriously, most Southerners never dwell on these things, but the loss in the war probably led to the excessive federalism we have today.

Answer 6

(Louisianian) :P

I can say this, the south and the north are still polar oppisites in many ways. The culture is just waaay different. Almost like two seperate countries.

I also can say that there are many people here who hate lincoln for what he did and wish that the south had stayed seperate.

BTW, many more view the Confederate flag as an important part of our history. And almost all confederate pride has little or nothing to do with racism/black slavery. Many just view the north as goin a different direction than the south. Religiously/politcally etc.

Answer 7

I'm a Virginian all my life, grew up and live in Richmond, the Capital of the Confederacy.

Am I pleased that the Union was kept together? No! I believe the South's defeat in the Civil War was the beginning of today's imperialist, overbearing, federal government runs everything (contrary to the Founding Father's design) society. It was the precedent for one group of Americans imposing their will on another people simply because they can militarily. That being said, I don't resent the Union states- they're as trapped in this mess as anybody.

Unfortunately, I'm afraid the Stars & Bars has been corrupted by bigots, and can no longer be safely used as an expression of Southern heritage...

Answer 8

I am from Maine and lived in Northern Florida for a while and encountered people along both lines..... some who believe Lincoln was a great liberator of the slaves and others who feel that the civil war was nothing more than Northern aggression dead set on destroying the Southern economy. This division is alive and well today. The flag is both a symbol of racism and a symbol of Southern pride depending on how you view the war. A lot of Southerners refer to Northerners as "da*n yankees" still today.

I heard this joke dozens of times while I lived there:

What's the difference between a yankee and a da*n yankee? A da*n yankee stays.

Answer 9

I was born and raised in the South of Florida. Now I live in Louisiana. I'm Puerto Rican, American. I feel that Abraham Lincoln was a great man. He did the right thing, and he did what it took to make our country a better place. I still don't see the Rebel flag as a racist thing. It just represents the South to me. I think people that make a big racist fuss over it are just ignorant. I have no resentment toward the Union states what so ever. But one thing that is really weird down here is many of the blacks can't get over what happened to their ancestors all those years ago. Though it didn't happen to any of them or their immediate family. They act as if Africans were the only race to be enslaved. They still play the race card a lot. Not all, but many. And I do still see some racist white people, but that's only in rural areas. The ones who are not around other races that much. That's just ignorance as well. You don't really see this in the city at all.

Answer 10

I don't like it. It was a war of independence not a civil war. A civil war is when two or more groups fight to gain control of the government. A war of independence is when a region tries to break away such as the southern war of independence.

The only good outcome was the end to slavery but I believe that would have ended shortly and without blood shed. It ended everywhere else without a war.

It changed the country and put us on the path we are now. Where taxes are levied in at the expense of some industries to pay subsidies to other industries. It reduced Sovereign States to little more than federal adminstrative districts, put us on the path to ever increasing centralized control.

No one won the war the entire country lost.