4 million Blacks made up one third of the southern population. They were certainly never pro Confederate, for 180,000 Blacks fought for the United States (Union). 100,000 of them were former slaves. Half a million slaves ran away during the Civil War. There were also 22 slave revolts in US history. Many southern women urged men to desert the Confederate military. Four border states never joined the Confederacy. 100,000 other white southerners fought for the Union. Half of white males in the Confederacy dodged the draft. Two thirds of Confederate troops deserted. There were over 4,000 political prisoners in the Confederacy. The CSA was a tyranny ruled by elites. Free speech was banned, newspapers and telegraphs censored, abolitionist writings punished by death or banishment. Political parties were banned. There were mass executions of dissidents. There were over 50,000 racist and political murders by Confederate terrorists in five years following the Civil War. The Confederate battle flag was not pushed as a symbol of the South until the 1950s, as an angry racist threat to the Civil Rights Movement. There are dozens of better symbols of the South than the Confederacy or its battle flag.

1. Why the Confederate Flag and Confederacy NEVER Represented the South
Even after a terrorist mass murder, some still insist it's a symbol of heritage, not hate. But the
Confederacy and its flag never did stand for all or most southerners. In ten simple numbers:
1.4 million Blacks made up one third of the southern population. They were certainly never pro
Confederate, for 180,000 Blacks fought for the United States (Union). 100,000 of them were former
slaves. Slaves also made up almost all US Army scouts, spies, and guides. Only about 80 Blacks
“fought” for the Confederacy. Actually they were hospital orderlies. But when the situation got
desperate, they were sent to the front.
There's no evidence these Black orderlies in Confederate uniforms fought. That hasn't stopped
Confederate apologists from making up deliberate falsehoods, or from pretending slaves building forts
or brought as servants were somehow troops. The only way to pretend Blacks “didn't count” as
southerners is to dehumanize them, or to ludicrously claim they preferred slavery.
But that would contradict other numbers: Half a million slaves ran away during the Civil War. Nearly
all fled whenever they saw their chance, when US armies were around. Perhaps 100,000 slaves
successfully ran away before the Civil War, plus another 100,000 runaways during the American
Revolution and War of 1812. There were also 22 slave revolts in US history.
2. Women were half of the Confederate population. We know from reading letters and diaries that
many women urged men to desert the Confederate military. Wives, mothers, sisters, and daughters
urged their men to come home, and then hid, sheltered, and fed deserters. Southern women also
frequently rioted against the Confederacy, protesting the war, its hardships and wrongs. Women's
resistance was central to defeating the Confederacy.
3. Four border states never joined the Confederacy, Missouri, Kentucky, Maryland, and Delaware.
The great majority in these states remained loyal to the US. In Kentucky, three quarters of them were
pro Union. All four states sent many US volunteers. When Confederates invaded border states, they
found a population hostile to them.
4. 100,000 other white southerners fought for the Union. That's volunteers from within Confederate
states. Only a few northerners fought for the CSA. Much of the Confederacy remained pro-US
throughout the war.

2. West Virginia is the best known. South Texas was Mexican-Americans who, outside of wealthy
landowners, opposed the Confederacy or were neutral. Central Texas was German-Americans, strongly
abolitionist. Northeast Texas. east Louisiana, southwest Mississippi, east Tennessee, southwest and
north Georgia, north Arkansas, north Alabama, central Florida, west North Carolina, and southwest
Virginia were all strongly pro-Union.
These areas had small farmers who saw the Confederacy as fighting a rich man's war. They chased
away Confederate authorities and often freed themselves of Confederate rule before the US Army
returned. Even more impressive is the next number.
5. Half of white males in the Confederacy dodged the draft. Two thirds of Confederate troops
deserted, often multiple times. People tend to associate draft dodging and desertion with the Vietnam
War. Southern white males during the Civil War outdid Vietnam draft dodging by about twice as much.
The most common draft dodging was starting a school or newspaper, because teachers and journalists
were draft exempt. You might only have a single student, or publish a single page once a month. But
either kept you from being drafted.
If you have ancestors in the Confederate Army, chances are strong they deserted. So don't be proud of
an ancestor who fought for the Confederacy. They likely were forced. But be proud if they deserted,
and by doing so stood up to Confederate tyranny. For you see...
6. There were over 4,000 political prisoners in the Confederacy. The CSA was a tyranny ruled by
elites, not a democracy. Free speech was banned, newspapers and telegraphs censored, abolitionist
writings punished by death or banishment. Political parties were banned, with usually a single
candidate on the ballot like the old USSR or North Korea. There were mass executions of dissidents in
places like Kinsella, NC, There also was no vote for secession in any of the southern states except
Texas, where violence against loyal Americans dropped voter turnout by a third.
7.There were over 50,000 racist and political murders by Confederate terrorists in five years
following the Civil War. In decades after that, 4,000 lynchings of Blacks and Mexicans kept
segregation in place.
8.What's thought of as the Confederate flag is actually the fourth flag. There were three CSA flags
prior. The best known one today was actually the Confederate battle flag, flown only by CSA armies
after earlier flags were confused with the US flag.

3. 9.The Confederate battle flag was not pushed as a symbol of the South until the 1950s, as an angry
racist threat to the Civil Rights Movement. South Carolina didn't fly the battle flag on public buildings
until 1962. The reason why is obvious. Nothing said opposition to equality clearer than flying the flag
of an army defending slavery and white supremacy.
10.There are dozens of better symbols of the South than the Confederacy or its battle flag. John
Stewart jokingly suggested barbecue. But seriously, Martin Luther King should be the symbol of the
South. Who better represents southerners at their best? Who had more courage? King survived dozens
of murder plots and hundreds of death threats until finally assassinated. Many other Black southerners
also represent the South, Harriet Tubman, Medgar Evers, Rosa Parks, etc. So do Latino and American
Indian southerners, Henry Gonzalez, Emma Tenayuca, John Ross, Osceola, etc. If white southerners
insist on whites to represent them, why not Jefferson or George Washington? Or a southern intellectual,
Mark Twain?
The Confederate flag is like the swastika, just as the Confederacy was much like Nazi Germany. All
represent short periods of tyranny and white supremacy, not an entire people or their history.
Al Carroll is Assistant Professor of History at Northern Virginia Community College and author of
Presidents' Body Counts: The Twelve Worst and Four Best American Presidents Based on How Many
Lived or Died Because of Their Actions.
http://alcarroll.com