On April 9th, 1865, Lee’s Army Of Northern Virginia, then in ruins and running West from St. Petersburg fighting a futile rear guard action, surrendered to Grant at Appomattox Court House. In the four years prior to that event, the Rebel Flag, which was never the official flag of the Confederate States of America, was present at almost every battle fought by the Confederacy. The reason being that is was the Confederate battle standard, not the standard of the Confederacy itself, a misconception that has survived for over 140 years.

In truth, the original flag of the Confederacy was The Stars and Bars which was replaced in 1863 by The Stainless Banner. Added to these was The Bonnie Blue Flag, after which the song was penned, which remained the unofficial flag of the Confederacy during its entire existence.

Of all of the flags of the Confederate States of America, only one would ever include the image of the Confederacy’s battle standard, The Rebel Flag, that being The Stainless Banner - not including Naval Jacks.

143 years after Lee’s surrender at Appomattox, The Rebel Flag strangely survives as some bizarre symbol of – well, I’m not rightly sure. While some might argue that it is a quintessential part of Southern history, the fact remains that what The Rebel Flag stood for was not something that should be historically celebrated. True, the initial grievances of the those States that seceded centered around State’s rights, but the reality remains that the Confederate government fought to maintain a society in which slavery was not only considered economically quintessential, but one in which Whites viewed African Americans an inhuman. The true irony of the Confederate armed forces was that they consisted of a vast majority of poor Southerners that didn’t own slaves. In fact, the Confederacy was the first to implement a military draft in North American history, with one very interesting loophole. If you happened to own 20 or more slaves you were exempt.

Confederate soldier Sam Watkins, who would publish the renowned ‘Company Aytch: Or, a Side Show of the Big Show’ after the war, having somehow survived the entire war despite the fact that he was involved in some of its most savage engagements, wrote of the conscription act…

“A law was made by the Confederate States Congress about this time allowing every person who owned twenty negroes to go home. It gave us the blues; we wanted twenty Negroes. Negro property suddenly became very valuable, and there was raised the howl of ‘rich man’s war, poor man’s fight.’ The glory of the war, the glory of the South, the glory and pride of our volunteers had no charms for the conscript.”

[…]

“From this time on till the end of the war, a soldier was simply a machine, a conscript. It was mighty rough on rebels. We cursed the war, we cursed Bragg, we cursed the Southern Confederacy. All our pride and valor had gone, and we were sick of war and the Southern Confederacy.”

Interestingly enough, in modern culture The Rebel Flag is something predominantly exalted by the very same class of people that, had they served in the Confederate army at the time, were the sort that didn’t even own shoes, let alone slaves.

So what does The Rebel Flag stand for? Does it exist as nothing more than a modern showpiece of Americana, or do those that unabashedly and naively promote its image sincerely believe in what the Confederate States of America stood for?

In short, is The Rebel Flag a symbol that still promotes the sentiments of the Southern Confederacy? And if so, then is included in that promotion the belief that African Americans are members of a sub-human species?

To me, The Rebel Flag is a symbol that reflects an ideology, no different than the Swastika.

There is no question that the military feats of the South during the Civil War have completely overshadowed the political ideology of the government for which they fought. Lee, for example, has become a giant within the pantheon of American mythology despite the fact that he commanded forces that existed to protect a way of life that believed in the practice of slavery. That’s certainly not to say that all Confederate commanders were steadfast in their support of it, Lee included. Despite the overt bigotry displayed by the likes of Nathan Bedford Forrest, who founded the Ku Klux Klan only to leave it after it grew too violent even for him, others within the Southern high command knew all too well that the issue of slavery would ultimately cost the South the war, as no foreign power would recognize the South with slavery still a part of its design. At the Battle of Gettysburg, General James Longstreet even went so far as to say to a visiting British attaché that the South should have freed the slaves prior to firing on Fort Sumter.

After the Emancipation Proclamation took effect on January 1st, 1863, the South was left with two possibilities. Invade the north again in an attempt to get between Union forces and Washington and force the North to sue for peace, or for Lincoln to lose the 1864 federal election to George McClellan, who ran on a platform of Southern recognition.

Of course, McClellan would lose the election in 1884, and in late June of 1863 Lee would make the arrogant mistake of refusing to disengage at Gettysburg after the first day, move south towards Washington itself, find ground on which the Union would be forced to attack him at great loss, and succeed in not only significantly diminishing public support in the North for the war, which was precarious at the time, but militarily cripple the Army of the Potomac. At the time, Longstreet tirelessly attempted to remind Lee that their objective had always been to conduct a defensive campaign. Unfortunately, and despite the fact that John Buford’s 1st Cavalry, aided by the timely arrival of John F. Reynolds’s I Corps, secured the high ground for the Union after repulsing Henry Heth’s Division, Lee refused to disengage.

Lee, who by that time had come to believe in his own invincibility, and that of his men, sealed the fate of the Confederacy during those three days, though it would take another two years and countless more lives before the conflict was resolved. Had Meade acted aggressively following the disastrously ill-conceived Confederate assault on that third day by forcing the Army of Northern Virginia to fight a substantial rear guard action, he could have ended the war. Instead he chose not to, and what remained of Lee’s army was allowed to slip back across the Potomac into Virginia.

On that last day, James Longstreet confided in Lee that he believed that the attack was doomed to fail and requested that overall command of the attack be placed in the hands of General Richard Ewell. Lee refused, and when Longstreet was approached and asked if the attack should be made his only response was to grievously nod. By the end of the day, George Pickett’s entire Division was lost.

The myth and glory surrounding Southern military successes during the Civil War have come to overshadow the ideology of what was ultimately being fought to protect – a way of life in which an entire race of people were widely viewed and treated like animals. The symbol of the Confederate military, The Rebel Flag, has also survived as a symbol of Southern pride and defiance, again despite the fact that it represented the forces of a rebellion whose ideology was steeped in ignorance and inhumanity. And yet, it is not uncommon to still see it adorning automobiles, clothing, and numerous other things – nor is it uncommon to see the flag itself flown here and there.

Out of every ten slaves brought to North America, two died before the journey was complete - a rough estimate. In all, it is believed that between ten and twenty million African American slaves were forcefully sent to the United States. On South Carolina and Georgia’s rice plantations, almost 90% of African American slaves perished before the age of sixteen. Such figures were common. One in three slaves commonly did not reach adulthood.

One wonders when someone purchases a Rebel Flag bikini, cell phone cover, or belt buckle that doubles as a bottle opener, whether such realities cross their mind? Despite the Emancipation Proclamation and the Constitutional amendments that would follow, the Jim Crow South offered African Americans little solace. From January 1st of 1863 until the 1960’s, African Americans in the South would remain symbols of one of the most egregious hypocrisies in the history of any democratic nation. In the end they would win the right to be treated as equal citizens in a country for which many had fought and died despite their treatment. And to their credit, and to the shame of those Whites that viewed them as second-class citizens, they were able to accomplish that goal in an admirable fashion.

In 1947 Jackie Robinson stepped on to Ebbets Field despite the fact some of his fellow players had started a petition to refuse to play along side him. Prior to signing with the Dodgers he made a promise to Branch Ricky that for three years he would not respond to the harsh treatment that Ricky knew awaited him. Robinson, after considering Ricky’s proposal, accepted, and, after a short stint with the Montreal Royals, became the first African American player to survive in Major League Baseball. Despite the belief that Robinson was the first African American to play big league ball, he was not. But his introduction into the game ultimately broke the colour barrier that had been staunchly in place for decades, one that existed as nothing more than a gentleman’s agreement among team owners.

But Robinson’s talent and conduct, which would eventually sway the views of those that had taken up the petition against him, as well as many others, was irrefutably brilliant. In 1949 he was the National League’s MVP. In the decade that followed, African Americans in the National League would be voted the MVP seven times, with Roy Campanella winning three times, Ernie Banks twice, Willy Mays once, and Hank Aaron once. All five of them would go on to be inducted into the Hall Of Fame.

But prior to the colour barrier being broken, some of games greatest players would go completely unrecognized. Probably the saddest example is that of power hitter Josh Gibson, whose lifetime batting average exceeded Babe Ruth’s. In 1934, Gibson hit 69 homeruns, and it is widely believed that his all time homerun record is actually around the 800 mark, making him, to this day, the title-holder, a fact that was mentioned by Barry Bonds when he succeeded in breaking Hank Aaron’s all time homerun record. Gibson’s performance in 1934 alone shattered Babe Ruth’s single season homerun record by nine homeruns, and while Ted Williams is hailed as the only man to bat over .400 in a single season, Gibson hit well over .400 in four different seasons. Gibson died in 1947 at the age of 35 from a stroke after being diagnosed with a brain tumor in 1943. During the 1943 season his average was .474.

America remains one of the most bizarre democratic paradoxes in modern history. While professing to be a nation of free men at its birth, it also chose to tolerate the continued practice of slavery. Eventually that practice would be confronted in the most devastating conflict in US history. And even though the outcome of that war saw Constitutional amendments introduced forever altering the nation’s path, racism’s dark shadow remained prevalent in the mainstream for almost a century afterwards.

It is not for me to say that The Rebel Flag is something that should be stricken from memory or use. Free societies are based on the rights of citizens to express their beliefs, no matter their ignorance or naivety. That said; I do believe that those that continue to promote it, in whatever fashion, should never forget the ideology that it ultimately espoused.

On this day, two hundred and thirty two years ago, the representatives of the States that comprised the Continental Congress issued a Declaration of Independence. Despite historical glorifications of the event, not all of the States representatives were for the Declaration. In truth, numerous delegations from various States were opposed to it and eventually signed only after a lengthy process of politicking.

As most are aware, Thomas Jefferson penned the Declaration, though it is believed that others made amendments to its language. The most brilliant and universal passage from the Declaration reads…

“We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.”

Despite this statement, both the document’s author, and those that signed it, refused to apply its maxim to those in bondage. That is not to say that there weren’t those that raised the question of its hypocrisy, only that the importance of the Declaration being issued was their foremost concern, and that to address the issue of slavery would have caused numerous southern States to disengage themselves from the process being that their economies relied on slave labour. Thus, while the statement is one of the most powerful included in any political document in modern history, it is ultimately little more than convenient eloquence as it failed to live up to its universal proposition.

When John and Abigail Adams first inhabited The White House, as Adams was the first President to do so, they found themselves in a building still under construction, one completely surrounded by mud. In that mud were the tents of the African American slaves used to construct it. Thus, while the second President of the United States conducted his daily business, he did so while slaves laboured to finish the building in which he sat.

I mention this, it being the 4th of July, to demonstrate a point. That even the best intentioned of men are ultimately governed more by agenda than conscience, and that it is crucial that we never overlook that reality, for it is just as prevalent now as it was then.

Agenda leads nations to war. Conscience avoids it at all costs. Agenda allows a nation to exist for eighty-seven years without addressing the evils of slavery. Conscience dictates that such a thing is impossibility.

The government of the United States, though celebrated as democratic from its birth, has always been plutocratic, and therefore entirely adherent to the strictures of agenda. For true democracy is a thing of conscience, and if not, then something altogether different.