Confederate and Neo-Confederate Reader : The Great Truth about the Lost Cause

Most Americans hold basic misconceptions about the Confederacy, the Civil War, and the actions of subsequent neo-Confederates. For example, two thirds of Americans-including most history teachers-think the Confederate States seceded for "e;states' rights."e; This error persists because most have never read the key documents about the Confederacy. These documents have always been there. When South Carolina seceded, it published "e;Declaration of the Immediate Causes Which Induce and Justify the Secession of South Carolina from the Federal Union."e; The document actually opposes states' rights. Its authors argue that Northern states were ignoring the rights of slave owners as identified by Congress and in the Constitution. Similarly, Mississippi's "e;Declaration of the Immediate Causes. . ."e; says, "e;Our position is thoroughly identified with the institution of slavery-the greatest material interest of the world."e; Later documents in this collection show how neo-Confederates obfuscated this truth, starting around 1890. The evidence also points to the centrality of race in neo-Confederate thought even today and to the continuing importance of neo-Confederate ideas in American political life. The 150th anniversary of secession and civil war provides a moment for all Americans to read these documents, properly set in context by award-winning sociologist and historian James W. Loewen and coeditor, Edward H. Sebesta, to put in perspective the mythology of the Old South.