The Actual Confederate Flag

Most racists who for some reason love to celebrate their history of embarassing defeat will do so with this flag:

You may have just gone, "ah, the Stars and Bars!" Well, you're wrong. You may also have said "hey, I'm not a racist! I just love the South and this flag shows it!" That flag represents the racist institution of slavery. Don't believe me? Go read the actual Articles of Secession or this speech by Confederate Vice President Alexander H. Stephens and then try to tell me the Civil War was about state's rights.

That flag up there isn't the flag of the Confederacy. In fact they changed flags so often it nearly rivaled the frequency of iTunes updates. Here's the last one they used:

That's pretty terrible-looking in my opinion. I wouldn't want to use it either.

Some have said that the Confederate flag is a Naval jack. First of all you're close, but still wrong. The Naval jack in question was colored slightly differently:

And furthermore, why is saying that the Confederate flag on the back of your truck is a Naval jack supposed to make it okay? The vast majority of the battles were on land! The Confederate Navy didn't do all that much aside from dying! And besides, who goes around saying they love the United States by whipping out this thing:

So where did the popular (and incorrect) version of the Confederate flag come from? Some may say it was the Battle Flag, then spew some lies about how even slaves fought for the Confederacy to pretend they're not racist. The Confederate Battle Flag was square. There were some (read: very few) Confederate Army units that used the rectangularized version. Yet somehow, that's the one that gained popularity.

Interesting side note: Town Line, NY actually flew this incorrect Confederate flag on purpose because they couldn't find a real one. This tiny chunk of western NY state held a town meeting in 1861 and decided to seceed from the Union for a variety of half-baked reasons. As the war pressed on and the townsfolk sobered up, they pretty much forgot about that whole secession thing. Then in 1946, like an alcoholic going through Step 9, they rejoined the Union. They flew the incorrect Confederate Flag prior to rejoining, despite the fact that those in Town Line who fought for the Confederacy did so under yet another version of the Confederate flag:

Morons.

The Civil War Was About Slavery

I had a conversation recently with someone who claimed that the Confederate states seceded not because of slavery, but instead because they believed in states' rights.

Four states issued formal declarations of why they were leaving the Union. So, let's have a look at the Declarations of Causes of Secession for the traitor states:

Georgia

For the last ten years we have had numerous and serious causes of complaint against our non-slave-holding confederate States with reference to the subject of African slavery.

That was the second sentence. Sounds like Georgia seceded because of slavery.

Mississippi

Our position is thoroughly identified with the institution of slavery-- the greatest material interest of the world.

Also the second sentence of their Declaration. Sounds like it was a major reason indeed!

South Carolina

The people of the State of South Carolina, in Convention assembled, on the 26th day of April, A.D., 1852, declared that the frequent violations of the Constitution of the United States, by the Federal Government, and its encroachments upon the reserved rights of the States, fully justified this State in then withdrawing from the Federal Union; but in deference to the opinions and wishes of the other slaveholding States, she forbore at that time to exercise this right

 Yeah, they did manage to talk about states having rights and slaves.

Texas

The controlling majority of the Federal Government, under various pretences and disguises, has so administered the same as to exclude the citizens of the Southern States, unless under odious and unconstitutional restrictions, from all the immense territory owned in common by all the States on the Pacific Ocean, for the avowed purpose of acquiring sufficient power in the common government to use it as a means of destroying the institutions of Texas and her sister slaveholding States.

Texas had to brag first about being its own country for a while, so this ended up being the fourth paragraph. The third paragraph talks about how they like slaves, damnit!

Not enough evidence for you? Okay, How about this:

Our new Government is founded upon exactly the opposite ideas; its foundations are laid, its cornerstone rests, upon the great truth that the negro is not equal to the white man; that slavery, subordination to the superior race, is his natural and moral condition. [Applause.] This, our new Government, is the first, in the history of the world, based upon this great physical, philosophical, and moral truth.

This was spoken by Confederate States Vice President Alexander H. Stevens.

States' rights indeed.

Maryland My Maryland

I had no idea our state song was so goddamn evil!

Here are some highlights:

The despot's heel is on thy shore, Maryland!
...referring to Lincoln

Avenge the patriotic gore
That flecked the streets of Baltimore,
Referring to the Baltimore riots in 1861 that occured when federal troops marched through the ultra-pro-Confederate Baltimore city on their way to protect Washington, DC.

Remember Carroll's sacred trust,
Remember Howard's warlike thrust,
Carroll = Charles Carroll, the only Catholic signer of the Declaration of Independence
Howard = John Edgar Howard, a Marylander who fought in the battles of White Plains, Monmouth, and Cowpens during the Revolutionary War.

With Ringgold's spirit for the fray,
With Watson's blood at Monterey,
Ringgold = Samuel Ringgold, Marylander, called the "Father of Artillery," and the first US officer to fall in the Mexican American War (Battle of Palo Alto, 1846).
Watson = William H. Watson, a Lieutenant Colonel who also died in the Mexican American War (Battle of Monterey, 1846).

Dear Mother! burst the tyrant's chain, Maryland!
Virginia should not call in vain, Maryland!
She meets her sisters on the plain-
"Sic semper!" 'tis the proud refrain
That baffles minions back amain,
Arise in majesty again,
Maryland! My Maryland!
Holy shit! That's pretty awful. What's interesting is that this song was written in 1861. John Wilkes Booth shouted "sic semper tyrannis" in 1865 as he was killing Lincoln. I imagine it was a popular phrase back then until Booth made it unfashionable. Kinda like little moustaches were probably all the rage until the 1940s.

Better the fire upon thee roll,
Better the blade, the shot, the bowl,
Than crucifixion of the soul, Maryland! My Maryland!
Yeah, if Maryland doesn't get to have slaves, then that's akin to crucifixion! Ironically, on paper, Maryland got to keep its slaves two years longer than the states that seceded (if you believe the unenforcable Emancipation Proclamation).

Huzza! she spurns the Northern scum!
She breathes! she burns! she'll come! she'll come!
Damn Northern scum! "Scum" is in the state song! Scum!

A big reason Maryland didn't leave the Union was because Lincoln had as many pro-Confederate leaders and leaders arrested as he could. (Typically, the state was divided into the Unionist northern and western counties and the Confederate eastern and southern counties, the latter including Baltimore.) As a result, when the General Assembly met to discuss secession, the legislature was able to unanimously decide they would not seceed. With the Confederates out of the way, Maryland was able to ban slavery in 1864 and give the right to vote to non-white males in 1867.

This was officially declared the state song in...

get ready for it...

1939!

Who was sitting there going, "Hey, remember when we wanted to leave the Union to join the Confederacy in that war they lost, but we didn't? Well, let's make this horrible song about wanting to leave our state song!"

Lousy state.

So, anyway, there is a Bill (2009 Maryland House Bill 1241) that if passed would change the lyrics to another poem also called Maryland My Maryland by John T. White, written in 1894. It's much less horrid (see the Bill linked above for the lyrics).

When I make the Anteitam trilogy for RVG, perhaps I shall record both versions of the song as bonus tracks