Learn history

Letter to the Editor
3/27/2008

It’s a shame to see what history is taught in America’s schools, that the snide behavior that students are taught is acceptable in public forums. A few facts: less than 10 percent of Confederate soldiers ever owned a slave. Large numbers of soldiers weren’t white men at all (like my grandpa): American Indians, Hispanics, (thousands appear on Texas rosters) and even African Americans and women (more than 300 are known to have disguised their sex to enlist). Recommended reading:

The Emancipation Proclamation, which was not issued until the fall of 1862 and didn’t free a soul. Northern slaveholding states and territory retaken by the Union Army are specifically excluded by name in paragraph three.

The Corwin Amendment, which Lincoln offered to South Carolina if she returned to the Union. It would have protected slavery in perpetuity. Several states, notably Virginia, didn’t secede until Lincoln demanded that they furnish troops to invade neighboring states. So much for their fears for slavery. Only a fool would admit that slavery wasn’t a major cause of the war, but it wasn’t THE cause, and most men didn’t fight for that reason. They faced a very bitter decision: Do I fight for the Union, and shoot my family and friends? Or do I defend my home state? Most people wouldn’t side against their loved ones. The majority of citizens were forced into fighting by the choices of greedy politicians ... much like today. And before you scream “neo-Con” at me ... I’m a flaming liberal feminist, and, again, not a white woman.
Rev. Helaina Hinson

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