Flag, war were never about racism, slavery

Those wanting to attack anything connected to slavery from our past, such as Confederate monuments and the names of Confederate leaders as well as institutions and businesses, should also be equal in attacking those in the North that were just as guilty, if not more so.

Northern industry, banking, insurance companies and many universities were built upon the slave trade. The slave companies and their ships that sold the slaves to the Southerners were from Boston, New York, Newport, Salem, Providence, Middletown and New London. At one point, 42 percent of households in New York owned slaves. Wall Street was founded on slavery. Banks including JP Morgan and Wachovia Corp. made fortunes from slavery and accepted slaves as “collateral” on loans, and took possession of slaves when those loans defaulted. Universities such as Harvard, Yale, Brown, William and Mary, Princeton and others had slave quarters located on their campuses for the slaves that labored there. President of Yale, Ezra Stiles, was an active slave trader. Leading families of the region were active in the slave trade. Brown University is named for the Brown brothers, who paid for and used slave labor for the school library and University Hall, but also imported slaves to America and used slave labor in their candle factory and ironworks. Members of the New York Yacht Club had their yacht, the Wanderer, specially fitted for the slave trade. It picked up 600 slaves in Africa, returning with 465 survivors on Nov. 28, 1858, that it unloaded on Jekyll Island, Ga. This was the last shipment of slaves to arrive in the U.S.

Why aren’t there protesters at any of these places? It is because the U.S. government won the war and has been able to indoctrinate all of our students for over 150 years that the war was over slavery and that Confederate flags and symbols are racist. The war was over extreme taxation of the Southern states that were called the “tariffs of abomination.”

When the Southern states threatened secession, they were offered the Corwin Amendment that was endorsed by incoming President Abraham Lincoln and passed by the 36th Congress. This amendment to the Constitution would have made slavery permanent if the Southern states returned. It was rejected by the South because their taxes were not being cut. This proves that the war was not over slavery. But after the war the federal government continued to teach slavery as the cause to legitimize their invasion of the South to regain the tax money.

If you believe the Confederate symbols are racist, it is because you and those before you, were taught that in school. The only reason real racists grab hold of Confederate flags is because they also were taught these symbols are racist, and they want to act racist. The Confederate flag was never a racist flag, and never meant to be one. Racists should never have the right to wave a Confederate flag or an American flag! KARL WELSCH

Fayetteville