Shelby Foote had what I considered to be the quintessential Southern Genteel accent. His speech pattern, cadence, tonality, vocabulary, and humor were spot on. It is Shelby's voice I hear whenever I read lines of dialog for Atticus Finch ('To Kill a Mockingbird'), Lucien Wilbanks ('A Time to Kill'), and many characters from novels of William Faulkner. I dare say that Ken Burns will be remembered as much for preserving Shelby's voice for prosperity as for putting the War of Northern Agression into context. As a fellow Mississippian I am forever in his debt.

It’s rather ironic a Brit loving his accent, while the Yank usually loves the English accent...actually the London accent. Cheers 🍻

@@jamestaylor2920 I hope that was a little cheeky comment in calling it “The War of Northern Aggression”

@@alexhines9128 Alex, it was not meant to be cheeky. I was endeavoring to be accurate. This is a term used by Southerners (before, during, and after the war) to describe the incursion of Northern ideals and Federal troops. Some have stated that the phrase originated in the 1950's during the struggle to desegregate the south. The study performed as a basis for this conclusion used as a source, a search using the Google index of news papers. Google started with as a left leaning organization and has continued to fall further to the left such that they have now scribed an arc surpassing 270 degrees. Yet, even their research list a reference using that phrase in a 1862 speech given by a Union General, { ...In Google’s indexing, it appears exactly once during the conflict, describing the war, not as a proper name as it is commonly seen today. (The single example in the 19th century comes from an 1862 speech by Union General John Alexander McClernand, who cautioned Tennesseans that “you have been told, gentlemen, that this is a war of Northern aggression. I deny it. It is no war of aggression. It is a war of defence, of defence of our common Constitution and Union.”) ... } Apparently General McClernand in 1862 deemed the phrase prevalent enough and important enough to include a denial of it within a speech given to Southerners. Clearly "Southerners" were discussing the "War of Northern Aggression" at or before the beginning of the Civil War. Looks like Google has been attempting to obfuscate history yet again.

I think Brits imitate Southern accents better than Yankees do. And I love to listen to Shelby Foote. He sounds so much like my grandfather, it's hilarious. Also, there's a tempo and shape that Southerners give to their storytelling that can't be duplicated. I wish to goodness he wouldn't say things like, "I think they've got it wrong," when he should be saying, "I have a different point of view on the battle flag," though. I dislike the "I'm right/you're wrong" game.

I always wished I could have heard him speak.

He wrote everything with a dip pen (and he had dozens of them). He said the pause to dip the pen gave him time to think.

What a treasure! I'm so thrilled you have that.Who else would send you a letter written with a quill pen now!? People barely write anything with a modern pen and paper anymore.I fear we will not see or know the likes of any gentleman like him rarely or ever again.

Appreciating history so much, you find yourself becoming an indispensable part of it. Mr. Foote must have thought highly of your request. I trust you keep the note inside the cover of one of his books? Don't forget to write this information for inclusion with his signed note; it will verify the provenance for posterity. Your quest has become an heirloom.

I think he speaks with a quill too. A great man indeed.

Wonderful. I have been a fountain pen writer from childhood right to the present time. At junior school we had dip in pens with inkwells on our desks. Oh that this is gone. Well done Shelby

@MultiBagram the war was about freedom/session from the rothschild central banking cartel more than it was about slavery. Less than 1% of southern whites owned slaves.

@MultiBagram what lmao? Shut the f*ck up. You have absolutely no idea who the rothschilds are…they literally funded the trans Atlantic slave trade. I’m going to end this conversation now because you’re clearly ignorant and not capable of viewing history from different viewpoints.

@MultiBagram LMFAOO imagine shilling for the most evil family on the planet. You’re a disgrace to humanity, truly.

@MultiBagram “you hate blacks and Jews because I say so!” imagine being such a delusional piece of leftist trash.

@MultiBagram I’m not sure you listened to the video because Foote didn’t show sympathy towards either side. He said no soldier on either side gave a damn about the slaves/slavery. I feel like your assumptions flawed your claim from the beginning and therefore I must say, “Erroneous on both accounts!!”

His contributions to the wonderful Ken Burns’ documentary “The Civil War” were outstanding. He mixed academia with a terrific dry sense of humour. A sad loss.

Just like you, just like you....

@Roger Martin He wasn't in denial of anything. He just understood the complexities involved in the situation.

Ray Davis “Not a single soldier in either side fought for or against slavery in their minds” ... in 1865 10% of all union forces were black. Almost every memoir of confederate soldiers, from private to general, mentions fighting for slavery Every single declaration of secession mentions slavery as one of the, if not the primary reason for said succession Why the fuck was Glory Glory Hallelujah so popular in the north? This man is a southern sympathizing fucktard confederate

You are exactly correct,their are Gentlemen and then there are SOUTHERN GENTLEMEN,I'm 68 LIVED in TENNESSEE ALL MY LIFE,My Father was a TENNESSEE COLONEL AN Award giving to Him By THE GOVERNOR OF TENNESSEE,He spoke that slow Savannah DRAW like PROF. FOOTE ,I read everyone of his BOOKS,his perception of the Battles,The People,The City,S were JUST AMAZING To say the least! HE studied 1,000 OF letters written by MOTHERS,WIVES,SONS,AND ALL FACISTS OF THE REAL SOUTHERN HEART DURING THAT TIME!! Not the PROPARGANDA AND HALF TRUTHS COMING OUT OF THE NORTHERN NEWSPAPERS THAT WERE CARRIED ON INTO THE TEXTS OF TODAY! REMEMBER SHERMAN BURNED EVERYTHING ,OUR WORD MEANT NOTHING ,WERE IF WAS NOT FOR SHELBY FOOTE THE REAL SCOPE COULD NOT HAVE BEEN TOLD IN OUR LIFETIME,OLE ABE WASN,T WHO YOU THINK HE WAS,ENJOY WHILE YOU LEARN THE REAL TRUTHS READ HIS BOOKS ,YOUR EYES WILL BE OPENED!!!

I could listen to him read the classified ads, and it would still sound good!

Ken Burns is a national treasure!

His story about meeting Babe Ruth as a kid in the Baseball documentary is really interesting

The world lost another old southern racist from the so called "great generation". Yeah they were great alright great at being insanely cruel lynching murderers and segregationist oppressors of blacks. Rotten evil old bastards.

@@darrenduncan1674 Weak bait from an ignorant fool. Edit: I am referring to you.

Absolutely.

ratliff2006 how do you know that?

There is no evidence, this is called "Critical Theory". They just criticize anyone or anything they don't like, without prof or justification. It stops the argument that they were losing and turns it into a emotional shouting match, which they might win.

Brian Turner true....Shelby is awsome

Stryder Tesshu: you poor thing, try to understand context and do reading comprehension, THEN you can beat your wife and children

reminds me of the warden in Cool Hand Luke.

Outstanding ! I love it.

It began being seen as a racist symbol of segregation in the 50's when state capitols started flying it over their capitol buildings as a sign of solidarity against the rising Civil Rights movement. We tried to take it back as symbol of regional pride in the 80's and now due to the actions of one jackass it has come under an attack from which it will never recover in my lifetime

@Garrison Nichols racist jokes and stereotypes probably don't bother you either. You're the guy saying "It funny cuz it true"

If you look at the words of the creator of the flag they tell a different story.

@@sigp3657 that is not and never has been the flag of the Confederacy That is Lee's battle standard. Lee fought only for Virginia and would have fought for the Union if Virginia had gone that way. It is a battle flag carried as a symbol of Southern pride by men who Churchill called the fiercest fighting men in the world. After Reconstruction there wasn't much left for us so we became the nations warrior sect. All the way through the Korean war that flag was carried in recognition of that

@@stanb990 that don’t change what the man who created the flag said the flag stands for .

I can respect the culture reference, but it is unfortunate that using what you love,the powers that shouldn't be can get you to fight their wars.

You understand freedom. Very refreshing to see. Free speech is about protecting all speech. Even the despicable. We can not tolerate any infringement on free speech otherwise it’s not free speech.

It all about perception. Alabama can’t afford any PR hits

While I share your respect for individuals' rights to self-expression, if you choose to express yourself - to exercise your free speech - you have to recognize that there are inevitable costs for speaking your mind. Speech may be free, but it isn't cheap. More to the point, however, while I too respect individuals' right to speak for themselves, when governmental bodies fly a flag they represent all of the people and they represent force. Therefore, there is something else involved when they embrace a symbol, and that is where I believe the real controversy and the need for debate begins.

@@dlpogge I take it that you will have no issues with Antifa and BLM thugs brutalizing your loved ones, threatening your life, parading countless litigants through the courts swearing to your inappropriate sexual advances, and destroying your professional livelihood because you failed to pay lipservice to each of their ever-changing list of purity tests. In your world view there are consequences for speech. Their world view doesn't match yours so it is only a matter of time until you experience their consequences. In my world view, I may detest everything that you say but I will defend your right to freely express it in an open and civil dialog. The only consequence to political speech is that some political candidates loose elections. Any other consequences should be investigated as a crime. Flags are symbols that represent different ideas to each person. No flag purports to represent everyone. People pledge their allegiance to their flag. There are provisions to propose changes to flags and there are procedures by which the citizens can vote to change their flag. It is a two stage process. The citizens vote on whether the flag should be changed. If their vote affirms the need to change the flag then committees are formed to suggest alternative flags. The citizens then vote on which new flag will represent them. My state flag was recently changed. It did not follow the two step process. The majority voted overwhelming to keep the flag everytime it came up for a vote. A newly elected governor made an executive decision to give in to special interests and change our flag as was in his political purview. By doing so he violated a political campaign promise. I do not like the new flag, but I am not protesting in the streets, setting fires, or shooting people. I will work feverishly to ensure that he doesn't make it through the next primary. Should he win the nomination I will vote for his opponent. I will make it my life's mission to ensure that he never wins another election and I will vehemently object if he is ever put forth as a political appointee. My state representative, whom I worked to elect and reelected even though he is not affiliated with my political party, has forever lost my vote for similar reasons. He is a good man that voted with his heart and for what the majority of his constituents desired. We part political ways, but remain friends.

Its really not that complex. The state of S Carolina - who started the secession movement - said it was specifically about slavery. The north and south states were arguing abt slavery for decades before the civil war as well. Mr Foote’s loyalty to the South has him overlooking the horrible atrocities they committed.

@Jonathan Taylor No one considers the opinion of the rank and file when judging the basis for a war. Most battles until the 19th century used a significant # of mercenaries, they had literally no motive but money. When judging the motive, you look at why the Southern politicians chose to secede, and that was obviously about slavery given the debate at the time.

@Jonathan Taylor the Southern people elected said politicians. They were presumably, then, in favor of slavery. And then taking up arms against the United States - treason. I have ancestors that fought for the confederacy, there’s no need to romanticize what they did. They were proto-Nazis.

Rest assured that the US civil war, like all wars, was about power, control and money cloaked under the guise of righting some kind of morally repugnant wrong (like slavery, babies bayoneted in incubators, weapons of mass destruction, whatever - it's the oldest trick on earth). They can write ad nauseum otherwise but that simply flies in the face of all recorded history. There's slavery all over the world right now and my church is independently helping to address this in Africa where the problem is growing especially child slaves. We have approached government agencies here, diplomats, African officials and guess what none of them give a damn. The news is about as much what they report AS WHAT THEY DON'T. It's also a big problem in the Middle East and China and NO ONE CARES. People need iPhones and cheap products and the new plantations are global corporations.

@@tripp8833 Much like the northern soldiers who practiced genocide against the Plains Native Americans in order to to steal their lands to sell them to other white supremacists and railroad corporations. Those Americans were proto-Nazis.

+Randall Scott Thank you!

+Randall Scott U nailed it! My great grand pa, born in Germany, was a 1st LT. with Morgan's Raiders, 10th KY Cav.

When Shelby Foote is talking about the U.S. civil war, by far the smartest thing to do is to stop talking and start listening.

No one could have said it better. Thank you for saying so. I love it.

very easy to explain to any one with a rudimentary education in history.. Mr, Jefferson Davis spoke it very plainly and it is why he was elected unanimously without opposition at the beginning when there was no one seeking to be a pen mightier than....." Uneducated the slave is unfit for freedom ... educated he his unfit for slavery.. if you cannot see the wisdom in this by todays situation... then I must say you are insane. the whole idea of the south is that the black was a human.. not a third as prescribed by the north < and remember there were many states who had slavery in the north until 1866, surly as a teacher you know this. now this is just the answer to the rudimentary argument .. the truth lies in the reality in ,,, who is going to decide the issue.. the fed or the state,,, by constitution,, it must be the state,, after the south lost the war it became the fed... this is why men in the south fought without shoes and ate acorns to survive... they believed in a constitutional government.. ///// which no longer exists. good day,

A great Man🤚...

Ed Bearss!!

You either don't understand the word "withstand" or the word "democracy."

AT Hiker ...talk to the liberal left about that

Those neo-Confederate are a sensitive bunch. Hopefully, they'll come around.

Stinger 4186 Go waste someone else's time because you're not worthy of mine

Let's see, what do you call someone who supports a cause that lost? Oh, losers.

reminds me of the warden in Cool Hand Luke.

@Christopher Triplet Yes indeed! A great shame.

He is very similar to the warden in Cool Hand Luke.

Yep. It's entirely impossible for any one person to stand in one place, at one point in time, and get the full and proper perspective on any subject of history. As he said, it's true that a lot of idiots have misused this flag for their own uses, and it's fair game to oppose those people. But we should not allow misusers of history to deprive us of the truth.

A legend to people that believe in the "Lost Cause"... Not for people that live in reality. He was a propagandist.

@@bipslone8880 the uneducated man bites back.

@@bipslone8880 rather believe that. Than hard left nonsense.

Shelby Foote was an evil Lost Cause propagandist.

He was obviously a white supremacist by his defense of the extremely wicked confederacy whose main objective was to perpetuate human rights violating slavery.

Lol. "A fine man." To whom? A fellow white supremacist and racist?😆

He's not an historian, he's a novelist any serious historian will tell you Foote was not one

@@darrenduncan1674 how can you possibly think he is a white supremacist?!

Why is what he said so difficult for people to comprehend? He doesn't say it wasn't about slavery. He said it wasn't *all* about slavery.

You are absolutely right.

J Shepard It depends on how you look at it. For the wealthy/ruling class, of course it was about money. Regardless of their ideology, they had everything to gain monetarily by keeping slaves. Why else would we have the Missouri comprise? For the working class, it might have been for states rights, but let’s face it, did they really have a stake? As usual, they were used by the ruling class and bullshitted into thinking the civil war was for a higher purpose, which it wasn’t.

Please put on your thinking cap and do some research into just howany people in the South actually owned 20 or more slaves, very few. Hell, a majority of the South did not hold slaves at all. Economic dependence on slavery would have only concerned a very small group. The war was not about this, it was about the State's rights to govern themselves. Men would not have gave up their homes, livelihoods and lives (from the North or South) over the issue of slavery.

@@jeje-le9oy I am not surprised, but think about it. Why did we fight in Iraq, Afghanistan, Vietnam, and Korea? The working class is always on the front lines even when they don't have a dog in the fight. In so many ways we have been conned, coerced, and drafted to do the bidding of wealthier and more powerful men.

But this commentary was only about his opinion, which is hotly contested to this day, it did not state any facts about any battles of the War.

Very good...but not perfect. Grant knew that a big causation of the war was to do with slavery.

stuart - but bad historical analyst with hideous ethics

+Ronnie Menton The vast majority of what we would call the "one-percenters" or the landed gentry in the South were Presbyterian. The flag of Northern Virginia, and I use that term in describing the armies of the confederacy, because a lot of the other states that fought for the South during the Civil War, fought under their own state's flags. But, going back to the Presbyterian roots of my argument is the Confederate flag was fashioned after the Presbyterian cross of St. Andrew. As Shelby Foote states, die hard racists of the KKK, and the Aryan Brotherhood, when they weren't lifting weights and screwing each other in prison got Confederate flag tattoos. The federal prison system of the '40's and '50's did not allow prisoners to have tattoos that showed. Skinheads (i.e. neo-nazis have not only hijacked the Confederate flag but have swastikas tattooed on the skin heads as well. And this is not only an American phenomenon, but is being repeated by the right wing lunatics in Western Europe. The Confederate Flag is a part of our tragic history and should be kept to remind us of that tragedy. These other sons of bitches, racist, nen-nazi skinheads so full of hate can get themselves tattooed with garbage cans, but don't re-write our history.

Did you even listen to this video?

You're more full of shit than a Christmas turkey

Darren Allen calm down. I fly my flag. It's great. no one cares.

Darren,You are an ignorant moron who knows nothing about history,..period...Go squirm along to your Antifa meeting little boy.....

Confederate apologist

@racketyjack yes, foote was very knowledgeable about the civil war, but he had obvious blind spots. There was no reason more central to the war than slavery, and whether every single soldier thought about constantly or not, they all knew what the central issue was - foote was an apologist

@racketyjack It really doesn't matter how much he knows. If the battle flag started out without the meaning it holds today, it's largely irrelevant. It has morphed into a strong hate symbol for white supremacy, hate, and racism. It has to be relegated to museums with appropriate explanations.

@racketyjack Foote is why history was whitewashed in the first place. The Confederates states wanted to keep slavery so they fought the Union to do so. Every southern state wrote it in it's own Confederate charter that slavery was the most important reason why they were committing treason/sperating from the USA 🇺🇸. The actual documents are in the library of Congress. Look it up!

@@rosep8481 ....Knew more about the civil war,than you could ever hope to learn....

ACE Champion It was the ANV battle flag, which lost and was replaced by a white flag of surrender at Appomattox Court House. No one rightly carried it after that moment. In disrespect to the confederates who died under its aegis in battle, Nathan Bedford Forrest resurrected it as the flag of the KKK, and it has stood as the flag of lynchings, hate and terrorists since. Anyone willing to support that has crossed the line beyond the bounds of decency.

@Kyle Clark THE REAL TYRANT WAS THE SAVIOUR OLE ABE HIMSELF! A BRILLIANT PLAN THEY COOKED UP ,USING THE SOUTH AS A UNLIMITED RESOURSE OF MILLIONS, IN THE FORM OF THE ××MORRILL TARIFF TAX MEANT FOR SOUTHERN GROWERS ONLY! THE NORTH HAD SLAVES ALSO AND SLAVE TRADERS,SO IF YOU GOING TO TELL IT, TELL IT RIGHT!!IT WAS ALL ABOUT MONEY PERIOD,HE USED SLAVERY AS HIS ACE CARD!!FACT THERE WERE 4 NOTHERN STATES THAT WOULD NOT RELEASE THIER HANDS FOR UP TO 14 MONTHS,THE REAL FACTS ARE A LITTLE DIFFERENT HUM, ABE AND HIS CRONNEYS PUSHED THE SOUTH INTO A CORNER, FIGHT OR STARVE!!!!! DIO VENICE!!

@@nora22000 NOW WHY IN THE HE'LL WOULD FORREST DO THIS WHEN HE HAD AT LEAST 55 BLACKS THAT FOUGHT BY HIS SIDE!!

@@rayoliver7244 Yes, Forrest kept black men he trained as slavebreakers before the war. He was a slavemonger by trade, a cretin by any measure.

No he just gave the take you agree with

That would be something indeed.

Slavery was not isolated below the Mason Dixon. Study up. Your wrong.

It was a cultural war. Foote is correct, slavery was not a concern until Lincoln made it one. His action enabled free slaves and enslaved to take up arms and help the north.

People forget that slavery was a holdover from America's time as British Colonial Subjects, our Founders and Statesmen petitioned the King of England to end its practice in the Colonies and were denied.

Read up on the nullification crisis. Secession came very close to happening 30 years before the civil war began and it had nothing to do with slavery. It was about tariffs and the debate over state powers vs federal powers. The divide between southern and northern society was well underway before the debate over the expansion of slavery came into the limelight

@@jmelcher24 And it didn't end in secession. Unlike later, when the expansion of slavery was in jeopardy, did South Carolina lead the south out of the Union.

Lol. Because you're a white supremacist sociopath like he was. Huh? Right?

@@darrenduncan1674 what is wrong with you?

@@robertortiz-wilson1588 Simple good old boy Shelby strongly defends and glorifies the extremely EVIL, NEFARIOUS CONFEDERACY! It's a no brainer. Just listen to what he charasmatically says. Anyone who supports and agrees with such wickedness is wicked himself. If I agree with a bank robber in his crime, or a dope pusher I'm of the same spirit as they are. Understand?

@@robertortiz-wilson1588 what's wrong with you. Can't even respect other people's opinions on history

@@rickyj5547 the other person deleted their comment, I don't even remember what it was about.

Amen

There are simple minds who accept what they are fed as fact... even if it is untrue. Mr. Foote calmly explains what that flag meant in the first place, and should mean today. It saddens me as well that a few pundits choose to say that is a simply a symbol of racism.

@@m.r.donovan8743 What is really sad is that people chose to make it a symbol of racism to help rally racists and enhance their political power.

Read Alexander Stephens Cornerstone Speech for the truth.

​@@tdirtyatlExactly.

It was 99 %.

Bull crap slavery was the only reason for the start of the civil war! The rest of the reasons were just to deflect their right to own slaves.

Smogger911 please know slavery was the ultimate reason for conflict between the new states entering either as a “free state” or “slave state” from 1823 until the war. It was a constant battle in Congress. Further, the southern states wanted to remain as slave states and anti slavery was growing, it was a mess that consummated in the attack on Sumter. You can beat around the bush as much as you’d like, but when you remove all the clutter it was about outlawing slavery and the rights of human beings going from state to state as free. Distinguished scholars have proven that the abolishment of slavery was inevitable. Nevertheless, I respect your opinion and Foote’s ... I just don’t buy it . Thanks for your comment 👍

@Smogger911 Read the articles of secession from each State. Slavery is the Reason for the war . Period.

@Smogger911 Yeah they wanted to own people as farm animals and treat them as such, Free Labor, Huge profit, get real

For millions of people it mean slavery and the fight to continue slavery. In the Jim Crow era it was used by individuals, States and terrorist organizations to celebrate institutional racism and oppression.

Like hot 🍫

Nadine Jackson Foote was erudite and articulate, which is why he is so easy for gullible Southerners to buy into. Listen closely and one hears Jefferson Davis talking- southern gibberish.

Roger White If you were a Southerner and had lived through the cruelty thrust upon the South after the war you would never make such an ignorant statement.

B Davis Boo hoo had you been a slave you would say the South got what it deserved. The slaves were the victims in all this. Even during reconstruction whites continued to oppress- poll tax, Tenant farming, the kkk. Slaves were the ones treated cruelly, the southerners got who got rich off the backs of slaves got their comeuppance. Don't lose sight of what the South put slaves through. There is no feeling sorry for the white aristocracy of the South.

The South is the only part of the USA to have suffered military conguest and put under military government. This was contrary to what Lincoln proposed to the nation before his death. The occupation came about because the Republicans in Congress knew that the Southern states would send people who would join with the northern Democrats in opposing their reconstruction measures. It is forgotten that the Democrats generally opposed the 13th Amendment because free blacks might move north to challenge white workers for low-paying jobs. Most immigrants voted Democrat. Lincoln and Johnson had freely issued pardons for confederates who applied and so the congressmen sent to Washington in December, 1865, included many prominent confederate leaders. But even if they had chosen lesser known men, the Republicans would have refused to accept any but known unionists. Then there were the black codes in the South which greatly restricted the rights of freedmen.

True. But like anything else you give a little and it’s never enough!! They saw it leading to not just the banning ofslavery which we all know is wrong but to them pushing for more states rights. They wanted no part of the north pushing their ways on them.

@@alanbozard4701 While there may have been other concerns over other issues, the armed defense of slavery cannot be overlooked. Again, that's wrong no matter how you try to spin it.

Alan Bozard most citizens in those states did not want to secede.

royalhumpy - thanks for making that point - i forgot to do so in my post - now i don't have to edit it

For many, the other questions of the civil war are as callous as the sidelining of the slavery issue. For slaves there was no other issue. For free men afraid of illegal enslavement there was no other issue. The "other issues" are just a smokescreen to give the lowliest most degenerate, treasonous, snakes some semblance of honor, intelligence, and character. As secessionist garbage and treasonous trash whose major and primary cause was white supremacy and slavery they deserved a gallows walk, to the last wide eyed flag ogling drummer boy.

Lol, but he’s wrong.. 20 years before the civil war, in 1841, cotton was 59% of all exported goods.. The South knew then they would eventually go to war.. No southern was leaving the union over any issue other than slavery.. Mr Foote knew that, he is lying for some reason?..

@@jacobjones5269 So all the ordinary folks wanted slavery? Poor white people went to war.Slavery did not serve most people,it was inefficient and we can all go back in time and blame the guy who invented the cotton gin that made cotton even more in demand because it could help process it more in the 19th century.More demand,more insane reason to not let go of the tigers' tail(slavery) so it was more than a simple reason to not let go of your slaves if you had them.You ended up continuing it because of many reasons including the law of any slaves born into the Masters' Women slaves were his or hers,and where did you stop.War,yes would come but banks were involved,investors etc.Economics affected everyone.

Loren Heard Precisely.. The whole southern existence depended upon it, and they knew it.. Heck, they even had strategies designed around cornering the market to enlist foreign help in bankrupting the Union.. 99% of the southern soldiers didn’t own any slaves, but they were most certainly fighting for that very right.. Once again, my home state mentioned Indian raids from Mexico as a grievance for secession.. Do you really believe Texas was gonna leave the Union for any other reseal besides slavery?.. Not happening..

He is very similar to the warden in Cool Hand Luke.

@@tedosmond413 you need to buy a pair of glasses

@@rickyj5547 lol...nice try

The States rights argument is the argument that went on since prior to the founding of the Republic: federalism. That is, who is going to control, the States or the Federal government? If the States controlled, each State could enact its' own laws according to the wishes of its' citizens. If the Federal government controlled, they could overrule and/or void certain State's laws, such as slavery or no slavery. Control was the overarching issue, not slavery. Using our ideas of the present day to look at things of the past, and how things and thoughts on it developed a century + later, does not change how they were considered at the time they happpened. Doing so distorts history. History cannot be changed or eliminated no matter what anyone thinks of it today. Mr. Foote is right. At the same time you are welcome to your views.

What were the other issues? The Confederate states specifically cited property rights-to own slaves as their reason to secede.

You misspelled "very relevant issue." You mean "only reason, just obscured by other b.s. reasons."

@@s2xg112 Tarriffs and taxes , the Republicans were going to raise them to discourage Southern/European Trade , It was 10% before secession, The Republicans who had the votes were going to raise it in 2 steps from 15% to 50% which would have bankrupted the South . That was a huge reason , Slavery which fell under the blanket of States Rights to determine Their own laws of which Slavery was one of the reasons stated but was just a serious ailment of a much bigger disease of States vs a growing Federal Government , We see the results of that now with unelected Beauracrats stamping on all of Our Rights and Politicians who are owned by Corporations and Foreign Governments and not We The People .

The problem is it's being flown and flouted in today's context. It gets my utmost respect when I observe it in museums, not flying from a pole in my neighbor's yard. Then it is the enemy of the American flag.

@@donaldthomas9389 what happened to the frist amendment for freedom of speech

And Ken Burns vehemently disagrees with him on this.

@@boooootch who cares about what Ken thinks.

You are referring to the 54th Massachusetts Regiment, which was also the subject of the movie 'Glory'. At the end of the Civil War, many freed blacks joined the Republican party, since the Democrats heavily favored slavery beforehand, as a means to make the South's vast agriculture viable and profitable. As Shelby pointed out, it may depend on who you asked just what they were fighting the war for. I had many, many relatives fighting on both sides of that war. Many of which were either maimed or killed as a result. Either side saw it as a patriotic cause. Of these, most were fighting for the Union. Lincoln made it about slavery with the Emancipation Proclamation, after the first cause for Union. That changed the entire tide of the war. Both sides believed that God was for their cause. Lincoln believed that God was punishing the whole country because of slavery. The Battle for Gettysburg was the beginning of the end of the war. But the numbers of black soldiers that continually joined the Army did help to change the tide against an ever shrinking numbers of Confederate troops.

Foote is an addled old man. He's 100% wrong. Words change meaning. Symbols change meaning. The confederate battle flag has become a symbol of hatred, racism, and oppression.

@@arimfshapiro7907 You cannot change the meaning of words and symbols from their original historical context and then apply the changes to the same historical events without distorting history. it's certainly disingenuous for you to try that to fit your politics. You cannot call a dog a chicken. That is called "lying." The fact that others changed the meaning of the flag at a later time doesn't justify your change. It only means that both of you are wrong . Enjoy your dog soup.

@@MrRadioGypsy Do you seriously think the KKK and the NEO Nazis thnk the confederate flag harkens to the South's rich innocent heritage? This is not revisionist history. If the Confederate flag ever had a purity to its symbology, it has long been corrupted. You can't be serious in 2020 and not realize all of the pain this country has put on its oppressed people for centuries. It's time to man up and accept that our past is nothing we should be particularly proud of and do the right thing.

@@troubledsole9104 our past? Are you a southerner? Or are you referring to the US's history overall?

I have the dvd s Great job Ken Burns!

@@gregorypaine513 And you realize of course that Ken Burns' entire premise of the film is that slavery was at the heart of the Civil War. He and Foote are polar opposites in their views.

And we can have differing views through the lenses of 175 years. But don’t pretend to know what was in the heart of man who blue or gray unless you actually talk to them!

Kyle R listen to Ken burns and what says the war was fought over.

Kyle R I agree that that was his best work. It would be interesting to see if he could objectively make it again.

We get taught some names some dates and oh yeah everyone prior to the civil rights act of 1964 was racist and wanted segregation and slavery

You believe Mr. Foote? I am sorry for you.

@@jds6206looks like intelligence has left the building today with your red guard nonsense.

Mr. Lincoln also said something along these lines: "If I could save the union by preserving slavery, I would preserve it. If I could preserve the Union by abolishing slavery, I would abolish it." If you could ask ANY Yankee soldier why he was fighting, almost without a variance, he would say, "To preserve the Union." Except for some of the colored soldiers, hardly one of them would say, "I'm fighting to end slavery." Ask a Southerner why he was fighting and hardly a one would say "to preserve slavery." The Southern boy would always say "Because ya'll have invaded my home," or "Because we want to be left alone."

"I have no purpose, directly or indirectly, to interfere with the institution of slavery in the States where it exists. I believe I have no lawful right to do so, and I have no inclination to do so." Lincolns First Inaugural Address in March 1861

+Baxter Hawley, " If you could ask ANY Yankee soldier why he was fighting, almost without a variance, he would say, 'To preserve the Union.'" Not true. There's a reason that the original Battle Hymn of the Republic is about how John Brown's "soul is marching on". Because John Brown was the first soldier for abolition. There's a reason that draft dodgers in New York attacked blacks, because they saw the war as a war for black freedom. I'm not saying that every Union soldier was dedicated to ending slavery, but to pretend that it was not a major motivation for the Union is just wrong.

"Don't believe everything you read on the internet." - Abraham Lincoln

Lincoln also said, "If I could save the Union by preserving slavery in some places and abolishing it in others, I would do so." He wrote this in an open letter to a New York newspaper in August of 1862, by which time he'd already decided to issue the Emancipation Proclamation and was waiting for a Union victory so it wouldn't look like he was grasping at straws. Indeed, this letter was part of his preparation for that moment! (He did so a month later after the Battle of Antietam/Sharpsburg which casualty-wise was a bloody standoff, but the South did retreat to Virginia and the Northern press did present it as a Union victory, so that was close enough.)

Pretty obvious isn't it.

" It is deliberately disingenuous to pretend that the civil war was not about slavery" Did you even listen to this?

Agreed. A comment about your first paragraph. While the founding documents of the Confederacy did include strong statements of the righteousness of slavery and as one of the South's foundational tenents, Lincoln himself gave sometimes meandering statements about his motivations for prosecuting war against the South, which sometimes minimized slavery's role in that. It matters not if slavery was or it wasn't the primary reason war broke out. If the war was concluded with the South rejoining the U.S. but its slavery intact in the South, then truly the real war was lost. Slavery may or may not have been the primary reason that first shot was fired at Ft. Sumpter, but when the war was over, its abolition was absolutely the primary outcome. By that time, I think Lincoln understood.

@@cmdrfunk I did and I have heard other people try to pretend that the civil war was not about slavery. My response is a long one. I hope you will read it all. It is true that there were other issues and that most of the soldiers did not keep slaves and could never have afforded them but the primary and main reason for secession was to maintain the right to keep slaves. Allow me to offer three direct quotes from the video, to show that I did listen and to further my point. “it was the first amendment that had anything to do with private property” We should be clear here that by property Foote is referring to other human beings “they said we don’t want any part of this Union” "The war was one form of society against another form of society and because one of those forms of society included chattel slavery". And to be sure there can be no further misunderstanding, I will add three parts of the Confederate States Constitution. Article I No bill of attainder, ex post facto law, or law denying or impairing the right of property in negro slaves shall be passed. Article IV The citizens of each State shall be entitled to all the privileges and immunities of citizens in the several States; and shall have the right of transit and sojourn in any State of this Confederacy, with their slaves and other property; and the right of property in said slaves shall not be thereby impaired Article IV The Confederate States may acquire new territory; and Congress shall have power to legislate and provide governments for the inhabitants of all territory belonging to the Confederate States, lying without the limits of the several states; and may permit them, at such times, and in such manner as it may by law provide, to form states to be admitted into the Confederacy. In all such territory, the institution of negro slavery as it now exists in the Confederate States, shall be recognized and protected by Congress, and by the territorial government: and the inhabitants of the several Confederate States and Territories, shall have the right to take to such territory any slaves lawfully held by them in any of the states or territories of the Confederate states Finally, a quote from The Cornerstone Speech of Confederate Vice President Alexander H. Stephens. "The new Constitution has put at rest forever all the agitating questions relating to our peculiar institution-African slavery as it exists among us-the proper status of the negro in our form of civilization. This was the immediate cause of the late rupture and present revolution. Jefferson, in his forecast, had anticipated this, as the "rock upon which the old Union would split." He was right. What was conjecture with him, is now a realized fact. But whether he fully comprehended the great truth upon which that rock stood and stands, may be doubted. The prevailing ideas entertained by him and most of the leading statesmen at the time of the formation of the old Constitution were, that the enslavement of the African was in violation of the laws of nature; that it was wrong in principle, socially, morally and politically. It was an evil they knew not well how to deal with; but the general opinion of the men of that day was, that, somehow or other, in the order of Providence, the institution would be evanescent and pass away. [...] Those ideas, however, were fundamentally wrong. They rested upon the assumption of the equality of races" Such views make painful reading today but the facts are clear. Whatever other issues there may have been, the overriding reason for wanting to destroy the USA and become a new and separate country was to keep slavery.

@@davidgaskin7091 Thank you for your response. I take your point that the real war would have been lost. I have answered another comment below where i quote the Confederate Constitution and the Cornerstone Speech, both of which make it clear that slavery was the key issue. It is a shame that some people today are still either ignorant of the truth or do not wish to admit it.

The flag is also a symbol of how the Elite who started that war took a man’s honorable desire to protect his home and kin and *turned* it towards protecting their slave holdings: - They told men to fear his neighbor enough to want him kept in chains. - They told men it was worth leaving their wives to defend their homes from a war the South Carolina legislature started over slavery. The south deserves a new flag.

They also carried the US flag a lot in the 1920s

The cross and the flag go together like biscuits and gravy.

@ The Deitz...well said...also Indians used the swastika....Hitler got ahold of it and permanently ruined it in my opinion.

@@wirelessone2986 So true, the US Army also had a patch with the swastika on it. www.quora.com/Has-the-swastika-ever-been-used-by-the-US-on-their-military-uniforms