[kafromTN]

Thank you for the compliment and I better be somewhat informed, I've spent good money trying to get an education as a History major. I don't see any sense in attacking the integrity of the person in any sort of debate, I like to stick to facts and avoid emotion.

1] Southerners were against Lincoln because he thought all new states should be free [as you stated he was not anti-slavery, just not for extending it], however the southern states felt the territory should get to choose [popular sovereignty ] whether they were free or not. This was about the state's right to choose how to govern themselves. The tenth admendment of the Constitution of 1787 stated "The powers not delegated to the United States by the Constitution, nor prohibited by it to the states, are reserved to the states respectively, or to the people." The Constitution does not grant the Federal government the power to dictate on what terms new states are allowed in under. Article IV section 3 states

"New states may be admitted by the Congress into this union; but no new states shall be formed or erected within the jurisdiction of any other state; nor any state be formed by the junction of two or more states, or parts of states, without the consent of the legislatures of the states concerned as well as of the Congress."

The Federal government would only be allowed to admit the territory as a state or not admit the territory. They don't have a right to tell the territory they have to be free or they have to be slave. Even if the territory was admitted as a free state, the Federal government had no right to not allow the state to change their laws to become a slave state and vice versa. That was the main cause of the secession of the southern states. That is why the Federal government today doesn't demand states lower the B.A.C. to .08 they will just withhold federal funds if they don't.

2] I'm not sure what you mean by "I was gonna roll with you on that one but..." I assume [which I don't like to do] you were basically referring to #3.

3] I'm not saying it didn't happen, but it has been blown out of proportion. Let me reiterate, I'm not approving of it or saying it wasn't cruel or even saying slavery was a good thing. What I was pointing out was the frequency was not all it was made out to be. Certain groups have agendas to promote their point of view, some of which are to distort facts and sensationalize them [e.g. the Mexican-American War, Spanish-American War two name a ocuple]. That is what many people did on both sides of the argument of slavery, that is why people have to look at primary documents and look at documents written in that time period.

When you say you "get it from my people" from whom do you get it from&how is it presented? I ask because like I commented before some people have certain agendas so they try to cause divides instead of bringing people together. Jesse Jackson and Al Sharpton for instance would have no political power if the various races and ethnic groups got along, and in some cases they try to prevent that. If however you were given the information so that you can decide how to interpret it instead being told how to interpret it, then I will accept that we have differing opinions on the matter [which is fine as sometimes people have various degrees of background information to make a more/less informed interpretation of the information, and by no means am I degrading you]

As far as indentured servants go, they were property for the length of time they were to serve and were brutalized, sexually raped, taken advantage of [lied to about how much time is left in their contract;kidnapped or tricked into coming to the New World], stolen from [any money they earned while an indentured servant belonged to the master, but again it didn't happen with the frequency people like to contend that it did. I do believe, and I could be mistaken, that if a child was born to an indentured servant the servant would be required to do 4-7 more years of service. Indentured servants were predominantly white English citizens so their culture was the same as the colonists;sometimes they didn't have families and that is why they decided to come to the New World;I think name kind of fits in with culture sense indentured servants had Anglican names while slaves had African names [please correct me if that is the incorrect nomenclature]. Not sure about your meaning of knowledge of self, please explain.

4] See, we can agree on something.

5] No response needed.

6] Ok, point taken.

7] Not applicable.

8] You stated "That's what happens when you're stripped of your language, culture, heritage, and knowledge of self. And then taught to hate yourself." Does that also include blacks fighting in the military today? The blacks both free and slave who fought for the Confederacy were loyal to their state and fought for its defense [their was not a huge sense of national pride, instead it was on a state level since they were seen as free and independent].

9] I personally don't care either if certain private orginazations/companies want to exclude people based on race/gender/religious or sexual preference or any other thing because it is their right, but I also disagree with lawsuits being filed against those orginanizations/companies trying to force them to change.

My opinion is that most people take offense too easily. I also feel that if we followed the words of Martin Luther King Jr. "I have a dream that my four children will one day live in a nation where they will not be judged by the color of their skin but by the content of their character" everyone would get along much better. Based on this I also disagree with affirmative action but that is totally a different conversation.

10] I think it is always good to be able to have an educated discussion which ruffles some feathers and gets some people to get riled up, after which everyone gets along as well or better than before because it helps them understand each other. If only everyone could talk with candor about race to get the pent up frustrations of all races out in the open it could alleviate many problems. You have to understand others to get along with them.