In the mid-1800s, the US was growing, with different halves of the country driving business in different ways. While the North had industrial and manufacturing stuff going well for them, the South relied on slave labor to tend to their cash crops of the time. An official latitude line was set in 1820 to ensure that both halves could continue their work, however it was carried out, in peace.
By the 1830s, northerners were growing concerned that slavery was steadily creeping westward to new territories. This led to people speaking up, proposing another idea, abolishing slavery. This made many southerners upset and defensive.
"In 1854, the U.S. Congress passed the Kansas-Nebraska Act, which essentially opened all new territories to slavery by asserting the rule of popular sovereignty over congressional edict." Basically, if most people in a territory were pro-slavery, even if that territory was above the latitude line established in 1820, the government had no power to keep them from utilizing it. Slavery had the power to spread anywhere people wanted it.
This congressional decision led to conflict. Bleeding Kansas was a violent confrontation that arose as slavery supporters rushed to Kansas in an attempt to spread the use of their source of labor and ran into abolitionists who wanted to keep slavery out of the territory.
The overwhelming acceptance of slavery in the South allowed the Supreme Court to deny Dred Scott emancipation in 1857, after it was stated that "because Scott was black, he was not a citizen and therefore had no right to sue" for his freedom. Aside from this, attacks by abolitionist groups, like John Brown's raid on Harper's Ferry in 1859, only added to the tension.
With the inauguration of the anti-slavery president Abraham Lincoln in 1860, seven southern states seceded from the United States to form the Confederates States of America, so they could continue utilizing their slave labor without worrying about the government interfering with their business.
Long story short from here on out: USA vs. CSA cost hundreds of thousands of people their lives, but racial equality won! It won on paper, anyway. People were still jerks for many years. Fortunately, all that is behind us!
...
You've got to be kidding me.
I know that, in "An Introduction," I said I wanted "to inform my readers of the positivity our city has to offer." My post on the vegan picnic was exactly that. It was a great way to start off this blogging journey! This post, however, is something I wish I did not need to type, something I thought should be unnecessary in this day and age, but it is an important issue to address nevertheless.
I could go on about all the bigotry and injustice that continues to plague our progressing society just about anywhere and everywhere. However, I must express my disgust in discovering that there are people who embrace these horrendous Confederate ideas right here in Brownsville... Even more shocking was the news that these guys, the Sons of Confederate Veterans, will be holding a public event the day before Martin Luther King Day.
"But Juan!" you may interject. "Look at the Wikipedia page for those guys. It specifically says that don't want to stir up 'any feeling against the North.'"
I see your Wikipedia reference, and I raise you these two gems:
Article II, Sec. 9 of the Constitution of the United Sons of Confederate Veterans...
As well as an excerpt from the "What is the SCV?" page.
Their goals include "[instilling] into [their] descendants a proper veneration for the spirit and the glory of [their] fathers" and "perpetuating the ideals that motivated [their] Confederate ancestor[s]."
Some, like Mr. Ricky E. Pittman, Bard of the South, may argue that it was a power struggle which sparked the Civil War. Even if it is partially true, this explanation overlooks an important detail.
The question is: How would the South have maintained itself without having to report to the US government?
Ready for the answer? It would have maintained itself through slave labor, treating other humans like property, overworking them, abusing them, viewing them as lesser beings because of a difference in skin color. This is an ideal being celebrated by the Sons of Confederate Veterans.
It is one thing to acknowledge the existence of something, but to celebrate it, to hold it in high regard and close to our hearts is something else entirely.
We must not allow this neo-confederate group to celebrate those who fought against human rights. If we remain silent on this issue, we spit on the graves of those who were unfairly forced into a life of hard labor, poor living conditions, and overall mistreatment.
We must not allow this neo-confederate group to celebrate those who fought against human rights. If we remain silent on this issue, we spit on the graves of those who were unfairly forced into a life of hard labor, poor living conditions, and overall mistreatment.
I hope you readers will speak against this event. Inform your family about this. Share the news with your friends. Call up a city official and politely express your disappointment! Politely, I said!
Let people know you do not want your Brownsville's name to be associated with such a cruel and outdated, not to mention long outlawed, idea.
nice
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