Perception - Rights vs ?
Rights – Done in accordance with or conformable to moral law or to some standard of rightness; equitable; just; righteous. (Webster Comprehensive Dictionary)
What is your favorite way to learn, to learn about people, places, events and time frames? For me it’s through books. I love reading, and learning about history, either historical account, similar to re-enactments to straight out fiction with twinges of History to them. I am currently working my way through a very in-depth set of three books by Shelby Foote on the Civil War. I grew up in a mirage of places, ranging from the central US to deep down South to the upper Northwest part of the nation. I can remember in middle school going over state history in South Carolina, living not far from Sumter you can not learn about the state without touching on the Civil War. The one thing that still remains the central theme to what I was taught was the sentiment that it was all about slavery. My question is – was it really, from the books I have read and the documentaries presented in other classes I have taken, I don’t believe it is. Each person forms their opinion based on the information presented to them. Right now I am towards the beginning of the Civil War, the attack on Fort Sumter in the Charleston Harbor has already occurred. The controversy election of Republican President Lincoln has occurred, and the Confederate decision for Jefferson has also occurred.
One thing that has struck me while reading this book is the discussion of the two presidents, going back and forth between both sides, learning what each was doing at the same time. While Lincoln waited and planned, the Confederates were seeing how they could try and win this war. When hearing the discussion of the main reason for the civil war being about slavery you wonder how that could be when you do some research into Lincoln. Lincoln was born in Kentucky, born around the slaves, moved around and ended up in Illinois. His wife was what I would term a Southern Belle. You wonder how she reacted to the South’s secession, to the stance her husband took and how he manipulated the South to make the first move. In poker you hear the term – force one’s hand…bluffing your way to make the other think you have something fantastic planned if they don’t go first. This concept was used with regards to Fort Sumter. The South upon creation of the Confederate States requested all Federal troops to withdrawal, when that didn’t happen at Sumter; they said they would shoot them out. The response – what was the point they would be starved soon anyway.
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