Judging from the flag displayed with your letter, the flag you question is the Confederate Battle Flag which was the soldier's flag, flown by troops in the field which to be technically correct were overwhelmingly NON-slave holders.
If you are concerned about the Confederate Constitution's provision protecting slavery, you are right, it did...for 4 years. If you would like to teach you son to be accurate in his attitudes you might want to point out to him that the U.S. Flag protected slavery for 84 years and the "man" that is given credit for ending it actually proposed a Constitutional Amendment (Corwin Amendment) that would have protected it forever. Slavery in the U.S. did not end until nearly a year after "his" death and it took a Constitutional Amendment (13th)to do it.

The Money Man's War

From: Bernhard1848@att.net

The freeing of the slaves not only cost the South two billion dollars (in lost investment of wealth), it also forced upon that section an absolute economic and social revolution. The repudiation of debts impoverished the South and destroyed its financial relationships. While the South lost its debts, it had to pay its full share of the northern debts which amounted to about four-fifths of the total northern war expenses. The money for this debt was spent in the North for its own benefit. The South paid also its share of the $20,000,000 returned by the Federal treasury to the northern states for direct taxes collected from them during the war and of extravagant pensions to northern soldiers. It is estimated that the South paid in these ways an indemnity of at least a billion dollars to the north.


Bernhard Thuersam
Cape Fear Historical Institute
Wilmington, NC
www.CFHI.net



The Money Man's War:

"(The) North had fought, not in a crusade for equality and against aristocracy, but for money; for the riches it had acquired, and that the newly-developed means of acquiring riches it had acquired, and that the newly-developed means of acquiring riches might not be destroyed; for nothing else. After the first flush of enthusiasm caused by the bombardment of Fort Sumter---"firing on the flag"---had subsided, before which no insult, no defiance, and notably---very notably---no enthusiasm for (the slaves') liberty and equality had been able to awaken enough fighting spirit in the North to lead the administrators of the Federal Government to take any important steps for its preservation....(Yet) the war must...be prosecuted or the Government destroyed, the contest became one of money for the sake of money.

The war was virtually carried on by the moneyed men, the businessmen of the North. They furnished its "sinews" and this they did for their own interest. Many of them grew rich by the war; most of them saw that in its successful prosecution lay their future prosperity. The war-time was a money-making process. The Federal Government was victorious simply because it had the most men and the most money. The Confederate cause failed simply because its men and money were exhausted; for no other reason. Inequality came to an end in the South; equality was established throughout the Union; but the real victors were the money-makers, merchants, bankers, manufacturers, railway men, monopolists, and speculators. It was their cause that had triumphed under the banner of freedom.

General Grant has been roughly-handled by caricaturists and paragraphists as a beggar. Verily, his reward has been small at the hands of those to whom he rendered his chief service. If the businessmen of the North had given him an income of one thousand dollars a day, and General Sherman one of five hundred, they would have insufficiently acknowledged what those stubborn soldiers did for them."

(Who and What Conquered the South? Richard Grant White, North American Review, September, 1883)

To Matthew, I'm with you and would not allow a book with a confederate flag in my home. It's just not OK, and I don't want to teach my kids that it is. To Josephine, I could care less how much the South had to pay in retribution. They owned PEOPLE....

I am sorry Matthew, but taking the book out of your home does nothing. While you cannot make a toddler understand the flag and the issues surrounding it, you have made the mistake of politically correct censorship and already set him upon the path of knowing there is something wrong with the flag, when there is not. As for you Amy, you are simply brainwashed into believing that there is something wrong with the flag when you have no really understanding of it. If you think that there is something wrong with the flag because of slavery, then you shouldn't be proud of the US flag because, after all, it was the US that first allowed slavery and the US who did not make attempts to abolish it until it was militarily expedient...and even then, it really didn't free slaves.....

To Amy, It would be pointless of me to point out that under the US Flag people owned other people for 89 years since you clearly have made up your mind that the Southern Cross is evil.

To Matthew, I would suggest you allow your child to make up his own mind about what things stand for. You can give him your point of view, as any good parents should, but in the end its up to him to decide if the flag itself and the people who use it are evil.

I love the picture being shown. The Confederate battle flag was a SQUARE, not a rectangle. The 'official' flag of the CSA was the Stars and Bars. I love how ignorance abounds in such things.

Also, the CSA was a hostile nation to the United States of America, and therefore, the Confederate flag is not a symbol of 'heritage', but of TREASON.

Put that on your pole and hoist it.

Well Carl, you are absolutely right, the Confederate Battle Flag as initiated and used by the Army of Northern Virginia was indeed, square but the Confederate Naval Jack as shown in the photo, which was rectangular, was also carried by many regiments in the Army of Tennessee.
The first "official" flag of the CSA was indeed the "Stars and Bars" but as you undoubtedly know, only until succeeded by the "Stainless Banner" and finally the Third National which must NOW be regarded as the National Flag of the Confederacy.
While this banter might certainly be regarded as splitting hairs, rather than ignorance, claiming that the Confederate States were hostile to the United States might be interpreted otherwise.
The Confederate States seceeded from the United States by vote of elected representatives, except in the case of Tennessee which used a popular referendum, using what ole Abe had once called "the sacred right of withdrawl". Jefferson Davis stated clearly in his first inaugural address, "we only want to be left alone" which dosen't sound too hostile. It was the northern government that refused to withdraw its troops from Southern soil and in fact attempted a weak diversion to resupply them. It was also the northern government that reufsed to meet with soutern representatives to prevent or end hostilities and also triggered the secession of nearly half the Southern states by calling for 75,000 troops to invade the South. Coupled with the post war statements of Chief Justice Salmon P. Chase (former Lincum Cabinet member) that the war was unconstitutional, your claim seems mighty thin. Maybe even bordering on...well...uninformed.

My apologies to Carl. Obviously my remarks were intended for Jeff.
How ignorant of me.

It is by stuped and bigoted people like you that the war had to be fought.
Everyone has the right to proudly display the National Flag of the Confederacy or the Confederate battle Flag if they choose so and proudly, it was for you yanks that keep peoplpe in the position they're now.
Leave the Confederacy alone, many men losts their lives for it, and it was really a very stuped war that costs many lives, besides if the blacks wanted to be free they should have freed themselves.

Thanks for the comments, but please remember to keep the discussion civil.

Ple-e-ase! it is a book for toddlers. What is to explain? Did he ask about the flag? If not, why color his apinion so early in life. The flag you show in your article is part of history. The one you describe in the article is a flag 'similar' to this one with a skull and cross bones on it. One that is neither part of history or had any effect on the country. It is a flag someone created. No more offensive than if I put Kermit the Frog's face in the center of the same flag , or replace the yellow stars on the Chinese flag with flowers. It wouldn't be the same flag or the same symbolism.

Just how much do you expect an "almost three year old" to comprehend about this? The flag is colorful and otherwise meaningless decoration to someone that age. When he gets old enough to question it, then worry about explaining the CSA.

Well, this is where it all started even before 1830. See "The South Under Seige 1830-2000" by Frank Conner. This teaching of systemic hatred of the South by the NE Elite in the North, and one of the reasons the South wanted to separate from a people who wrote a barrage of hated about them.

The real contest was between a Northern view of the constitution as a "living constitution", able to change at will and a Southern view of standing by the "original constitution" as written by their forefathers.

Jefferson of Virginia vs Hamilton of New England

You Mathew can continue this hatred of the South on with your offspring or you can be a part of real change and do the right thing.

The term that fits your mentality is Presentism.

When our fellow citizens recoil in horror, disgust, hatred or fear from a Southern symbol, like Lee-Jackson Day, or Jefferson Davis, just as a vampire shrieks at the Cross, they’re engaged in “presentism.” It’s an affliction of the mind that pollutes the spirit and poisons the body politic.

Presentism is the empty, false assumption that all former people thought as some present people feel.

It’s fundamental to the worldview of Liberal Human Secularists who worship the trinity of race, class, and gender(s). It’s necessary for their hierarchy of evil that demonizes political and cultural enemies. It makes nothing Conservatives say count, because Conservative speech is permanently tainted by some hatred, intolerance, historical crime or politically incorrect no-no.

The presentism definition from Wikipedia lays out its flaws

To deny the existance of the flag as a art of American history, is worst than those that wish to promogate its continuance.

Any country that tries to deny an event in its history, good or bad, is damned to repeat the even. Just look at the continuain of the Nasi party in Germany. c

To deny the existance of the flag as a art of American history, is worst than those that wish to promogate its continuance.

Any country that tries to deny an event in its history, good or bad, is damned to repeat the even. Just look at the continuain of the Nasi party in Germany. c

Much ado about nothing. The child is probably more focused on the big wheels than a flag. Why do adults always have to create controversy where none existed?

If you don't want a confederate flag, swastika or pentagram in your house, you have the right to remove them. More power to you!

Im just amazed at the reaction this gets. My goodness.What people must think when they see my truck . It has 3 oh my gosh Confederate flag stickers on it. Run hide , the children , there is a Confederate Flag in public view!.Seriously, learn your history people.

Worry about how you act in front of your kids and what you teach them. That's going to go a lot farther than what they see in a book, and they're going to run into lots of confederate flags and swaztikas and all sorts of nonsense when they're grown up.

Better to equip them now with common sense.

One of the reasons people associate the confederate flag with slavery is revisionist history. The civil war wasn't about slavery, it was about not letting the southern states secede from a union that wasn't representing their interests fairly.

The idea that the civil war was to end slavery is not true. It's been promoted lately, I've seen the difference between history books I had in school and what they have now. It's shocking, to say the least, and looks like the books were re-written to be more politically correct.

In 50 years they'll claim Iraw was about freeing people and won't mention the oil or money.

Iraq. Wups.

I can never decide which there are more of in this country, Idiots or Bigots! Maybe bothe. Found a picture of the Rebel Flag in a book! WOW--Heaven forbid that the child ever bring home an History Book. This illeterate parent will have hysterics from Early Roman debauchery to present day civilization. Watch out for the classic art books!they are a bit like Daddy's Playboy Magazine, and better stop reading newspapers!!

I applaud you for deciding as a father what you want in your own home and on your own bookshelf, for whatever reason you have.

I don't know if the problem is that it's a racist symbol (maybe it's not) or that racists use is as a symbol (they do). Racists use other symbols, too, including the red, white and blue.

At what point does the intended purpose of a symbol get usurped by those who appropriate it for some other motive? When you think about it, as many racists (if not more) hold up a Bible as a confederate flag: why does one get revered and the other stigmatized?

When you say "it's like global warming: the research has spoken" I hope you mean "it's been disproven." All current research, including what former NASA bureauweenies who were strongarmed into agreeing with it years ago, are now coming clean and admitting global warming is the biggest hoax of our time. I hope that's what you meant.

When you say "it's like global warming: the research has spoken" I hope you mean "it's been disproven." All current research, including what former NASA bureauweenies who were strongarmed into agreeing with it years ago, are now coming clean and admitting global warming is the biggest hoax of our time. I hope that's what you meant.

When you say "it's like global warming: the research has spoken" I hope you mean "it's been disproven." All current research, including what former NASA bureauweenies who were strongarmed into agreeing with it years ago, are now coming clean and admitting global warming is the biggest hoax of our time. I hope that's what you meant.

Well, that was quite a response!

The lessons on Confederate flag history were fascinating. The distinction between the flags of the Armies of Northern Virginia and Tennessee was worth the post alone. I grew up in Springfield, Illinois, and my father wrote a biography of Lincoln, so I wasn’t surprised mentioning this subject sparked such detailed analysis.

I have one other thought: these contentious symbols carry a different meaning inside a home vs. outside a home. Some people thought my question seemed silly because this flag is a common sight, particularly in the South. But we elevate symbols once they enter our home, and it’s naïve to think kids don’t understand that. Sure, our boys will see Confederate flags (of all sorts) outside our door, but it will be in a different context, one that I can explain. And I will probably use a book to explain the history of the Confederacy, the Civil War and slavery in America once they can grasp it. But a passing image in a book about monster trucks belittles the flag, whether you think it’s an image of hate or heritage.

To Matthew Strozier: Why are you even considering initiating a "discussion" with a three-year-old about the Confederate battle flag? How about allowing him to simply be a kid for a few more years before politicizing his life?

Furthermore, why are you even bothering with this issue? The Confederate battle flag represents a nation defeated in war in 1865, 144 years ago. There are many MORE relevant issues today.