Why Mississippi Should Change the Flag
Mississippi should change the flag to represent all peoples living in the state. A new flag should represent freedom for everyone and not oppression to half the State. Mississippi has the potential to be the cultural and economic center of the USA. Let the flag represent that.
Many people understandably associate the flag with slavery. It was the flag slaves were fighting against when they fought for their freedom.
Many people understandably associate the flag with the KKK. 100+ years of burning crosses and lynching black people to keep them in a state of involuntary servitude while simultaneously flying the Battle Flag still lives in the memory of citizens of the State today.
To others in the State, it represents their ancestor’s courage to fight and die when they were invaded.
In order to understand the different mindsets, one needs to actually know the history of secession and the war.
In late 1860 through early 1861, during the US presidency of James Buchanan, 7 States had individually and peacefully seceded from the USA. The 7 states formed the Confederate States of America on February 4, 1861.[1]
There was no war.
The original flag of the CSA was called the Stars and Bars.
On January 9 , 1861 Mississippi became the second state to secede after South Carolina. The official reason for Mississippi seceding is racist. Per, A Declaration of the Immediate Causes which Induce and Justify the Secession of the State of Mississippi from the Federal Union,[2]
“Our position is thoroughly identified with the institution of slavery-- the greatest material interest of the world. Its labor supplies the product which constitutes by far the largest and most important portions of commerce of the earth. These products are peculiar to the climate verging on the tropical regions, and by an imperious law of nature, none but the black race can bear exposure to the tropical sun. These products have become necessities of the world, and a blow at slavery is a blow at commerce and civilization. That blow has been long aimed at the institution, and was at the point of reaching its consummation. There was no choice left us but submission to the mandates of abolition, or a dissolution of the Union, whose principles had been subverted to work out our ruin.”
The flag Mississippi adopted after secession is called the Magnolia flag.
Even admitting that preserving slavery was the reason for Mississippi seceding, ending hundreds of years of slavery was not the reason why the USA would invade the CSA according to President Abraham Lincoln. Lincoln made it clear that ending slavery was not his objective in his first inaugural address on March 4, 1861. He said,[3]
“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. I therefore consider that in view of the Constitution and the laws the Union is unbroken, and to the extent of my ability, I shall take care, as the Constitution itself expressly enjoins upon me, that the laws of the Union be faithfully executed in all the States...”
Continuing, Lincoln said that the minority of slave owners would keep their slaves if they paid their taxes on imports bought by exporting, primarily, cotton.
“In doing this there needs to be no bloodshed or violence, and there shall be none unless it be forced upon the national authority. The power confided to me will be used to hold, occupy, and possess the property and places belonging to the Government and to collect the duties and imposts; but beyond what may be necessary for these objects, there will be no invasion, no using of force against or among the people anywhere.”
There was still no war.
The war did not start until a month later when Confederate soldiers attacked US soldiers occupying Fort Sumter, South Carolina, CSA on April 12 , 1861.
Located in the Charleston Bay of South Carolina, Fort Sumter was unoccupied when South Carolina seceded in December of 1860. US soldiers under command of Major Robert Anderson only occupied the fort 6 days after South Carolina declared independence for a second time- putting Charleston under the threat of embargo and bombardment, “to collect the duties and imposts.”[4]
Lincoln tolerated slavery so long as the minority of slave owners paid their taxes- and the non-slave owners too. That is why the USA had 8 slave states at the start of the war and the CSA only had 7. Virginia, North Carolina, Tennessee, and Arkansas did not secede until Lincoln called up an invasion of 75,000 volunteers on April 15th. He said,[5]
“I deem it proper to say that the first service assigned to the forces hereby called forth will probably be to repossess the forts, places and property, which have been seized from the government; Union; and, in every event, the utmost care will be observed, consistly with the objects aforesaid, to avoid any devastation; any destruction of, or interference with, property, or any disturbance of peaceful citizens, in any part of the country.”
The Confederate Battle Flag was created because the Stars and Bars had been made to look like the US flag, which so many Southerners revered from their ancestors fight for independence in the American Revolution. However, it made friendly fire an all too common mistake and caused confusion, notably at Battle of First Manassas. So, in September 1861, the Confederate Battle Flag was created (Battle Flag of the Army of Northern Virginia).[6]
Almost a year after the Confederate Battle Flag was created, Lincoln reaffirmed that the war was not about slavery. In his August 22, 1862 letter to Horace Greely, editor of the New York Tribune, President Lincoln wrote,
“My paramount object in this struggle is to save the Union, and is not either to save or to destroy slavery. If I could save the Union without freeing any slave I would do it, and if I could save it by freeing all the slaves I would do it; and if I could save it by freeing some and leaving others alone I would also do that.”[7]
Some people may argue that Lincoln’s Emancipation Proclamation eventually made the Civil War about abolishing slavery. If this is true, then it admits that the thousands of Southern soldiers who died under the Confederate Battle Flag beforehand did not die defending slavery. Therefore, when the flag was created, it did not fly to defend slavery from ending.
In fact, Lincoln did not even free the slaves with the Emancipation Proclamation. He actually said that the parts of the CSA that rejoined the USA prior to January 1, 1863 could keep their slaves. On September 22, 1862 Lincoln proclaimed,[8]
“That on the first day of January, in the year of our Lord one thousand eight hundred and sixty-three, all persons held as slaves within any State or designated part of a State, the people whereof shall then be in rebellion against the United States, shall be then, thenceforward, and forever free...”
On January 1, 1863, Lincoln Proclaimed,[9]
“Now, therefore I, Abraham Lincoln, […] in accordance with my purpose so to do publicly proclaimed for the full period of one hundred days, from the day first above mentioned, order and designate as the States and parts of States wherein the people thereof respectively, are this day in rebellion against the United States, the following, to wit:
Arkansas, Texas, Louisiana, (except the Parishes of St. Bernard, Plaquemines, Jefferson, St. John, St. Charles, St. James Ascension, Assumption, Terrebonne, Lafourche, St. Mary, St. Martin, and Orleans, including the City of New Orleans) Mississippi, Alabama, Florida, Georgia, South Carolina, North Carolina, and Virginia, (except the forty-eight counties designated as West Virginia, and also the counties of Berkley, Accomac, Northampton, Elizabeth City, York, Princess Ann, and Norfolk, including the cities of Norfolk and Portsmouth), and which excepted parts, are for the present, left precisely as if this proclamation were not issued.
And by virtue of the power, and for the purpose aforesaid, I do order and declare that all persons held as slaves within said designated States, and parts of States, are, and henceforward shall be free; and that the Executive government of the United States, including the military and naval authorities thereof, will recognize and maintain the freedom of said persons.”
His proclamation purposefully leaves out those United States where slavery was legal and the parts of the Confederate States already conquered by the United States. The slave owners of New Orleans, the largest city in the CSA, did not have any of their slaves freed per the Emancipation Proclamation as they had been conquered in 1862. West Virginia seceded from the CSA in 1861 and then joined the USA as a slave state in June 1863 because they had seceded before the Emancipation Proclamation. Maryland, Delaware, Kentucky, and Missouri were all slave States in the USA before, during, and after the war.[10]
Had the CSA surrendered prior to the first day of January 1863, no slaves would have been freed. However, the South would not finally submit until the last Confederate general surrendered on June 23, 1865- a Cherokee chief named Stand Watie. Slavery was not ended in the USA until December of 1865 with the 13th Amendment.[11]
Since slavery was not ended until 6 months after the war ended, Juneteenth, the celebration of the end of slavery in Texas on June 19, 1865, couldn’t have been celebrated by the slaves in the USA because they were still slaves (except for West Virginia).
Therefore, had the war never started after the peaceful secession of the first 7 States from the USA, there would be no battle for which the Confederate Battle Flag would have been created. Had the USA won prior to 1863, no slaves would have been freed. Since slavery was not ended until 6 months after the USA won the war, either the Confederate Battle Flag was not created to defend slavery as ending slavery was not the “cause” of the war for the USA or the USA lost the war. The USA won, so ending slavery was not their cause.
Slavery was an official cause of secession for Mississippi but it was not the “cause” for the man who called up the invasion of the CSA- even while it was a consequence, along with the impoverishment of the South. Cotton made the South wealthy and the Yankees wanted to tax imports to the South, bought with exporting cotton, to spend up North. They were willing to burn, loot, and rape to control cotton.
The cause for the South was independence from New England just like the cause of our ancestors was independence from England. Every state was a slave state in 1776.
“We, therefore, the Representatives of the united States of America, in General Congress, Assembled, appealing to the Supreme Judge of the world for the rectitude of our intentions, do, in the Name, and by Authority of the good People of these Colonies, solemnly publish and declare, That these United Colonies are, and of Right ought to be Free and Independent States; that they are Absolved from all Allegiance to the British Crown, and that all political connection between them and the State of Great Britain, is and ought to be totally dissolved; and that as Free and Independent States, they have full Power to levy War, conclude Peace, contract Alliances, establish Commerce, and to do all other Acts and Things which Independent States may of right do. And for the support of this Declaration, with a firm reliance on the protection of divine Providence, we mutually pledge to each other our Lives, our Fortunes and our sacred Honor.” -US Declaration of Independence.
At the Battle of Gettysburg, Pennsylvania, on June 3, 1863, the University Greys made the furthest advance and suffered 100% casualties leading Pickett’s Charge. They were originally comprised of students from the University of Mississippi, now known as Ole Miss, which is Southern for Alma Mater. The university had to shut down during the war because the students were fighting for their independence. The Army of Northern Virginia would retreat back to the CSA only July 4 after losing their desperate bid to threaten the physical city of Washington, DC to sue for peace. The battle had initially occurred because Southern soldiers were trying to loot a shoe factory since so many were barefoot.
Also on July 4, 1863, Vicksburg, Mississippi, starving, surrendered to US General Ulysses S. Grant. Along with the loss of Port Hudson, Louisiana on July 9, the loss of Vicksburg split the Confederacy in two by giving control of the Mississippi River to the USA. Vicksburg wouldn’t celebrate Independence Day (of the USA) on the 4th of July until World War II.
Even knowing all of that, saying that the Yankees did not invade to free the slaves is the same thing as saying that the French did not intervene in the American Revolution to fight for freedom. The King of France wanted to hurt his enemy the King of England. From the perspective of the rebels of the American Revolution and the slaves of the Civil War, the enemy of my enemy is my friend.
Beginning in 1863, the USA began to arm liberated slaves in the CSA in their fight for freedom. While that freedom was not totally achieved until 100 years later in the Civil Rights movement, and is arguably still ongoing, their fight should be celebrated in our State flag- not insulted with the Confederate Battle Flag.
So, from the perspective of the author, who had two great, great, great (great?) uncles killed fighting for the independence of Mississippi near Port Hudson, Louisiana in 1863 and who had an (great x ?) uncle who was a general in the fight for South Carolina’s independence from Great Britain, I think we should change the Mississippi flag.
The current state flag was adopted in 1894 with the Battle Flag as part of the design. Beyond being an ugly flag, it was created with only white Mississippians in mind. The MS Constitution of 1890 specifically outlaws secession in Article 3, Section 7 in violation of the Declaration of Independence. Flying this flag with this State Constitution is at best contradictory and at worst racist.
Finally, to many living, the flag represents the KKK. The KKK was originally created as a response to the military occupation of the South, the disenfranchisement of Southerners from voting following the war, and to keep down newly freed (and armed) slaves. The KKK was disbanded by Nathan Bedford Forrest in 1871.
A new KKK was created in 1915 and was specifically a racist organization (not that the first one wasn’t). They flew both the Confederate Battle Flag and the USA flag together. They also hated Catholics and Jews. To say that they represented the Battle Flag under which Southern Catholics and Jews died while the Secretary of State for the CSA, Judah P. Benjamin, was Jewish, is laughable.
However, to say that the Battle Flag does not represent abhorrent crimes to black people living in our State is also laughable. The 13th Amendment (Jim Crow) was and still is used to enslave people today for “crimes” which are protected by the Bill of Rights. The 13th Amendment reads,
“Neither slavery nor involuntary servitude, except as a punishment for crime whereof the party shall have been duly convicted, shall exist within the United States, or any place subject to their jurisdiction.”
The 14th Amendment was added to ensure that the States (and KKK) would not use the 13th Amendment to criminalize and re-enslave freedmen exercising their new freedom as outlined in the Bill of Rights. The 14th Amendment reads,
“All persons born or naturalized in the United States, and subject to the jurisdiction thereof, are citizens of the United States and of the state wherein they reside. No state shall make or enforce any law which shall abridge the privileges or immunities of citizens of the United States; nor shall any state deprive any person of life, liberty, or property, without due process of law; nor deny to any person within its jurisdiction the equal protection of the laws.”
However, the State of Mississippi routinely violates the 14th Amendment to use the 13th Amendment to violate the 9th Amendment, which reads,
“The enumeration in the Constitution, of certain rights, shall not be construed to deny or disparage others retained by the people.”
The author can think of several “laws” construed in such a way.
For instance, the Drug War not only violates the 14th Amendment, it also violates the 9th Amendment and the Constitution of the State of Mississippi; which, in Article 3 Section 14 dictates to the government,[11]
“No person shall be deprived of life, liberty, or property except by due process of law.”
If you want common sense gun control or to ensure that some people are legally prohibited from using drugs, either have a jury vote for it instead of the legislature or amend the Constitution. The jury has to vote away one’s liberty before the police can take away anyone’s liberty. Otherwise, it does not matter what flag you fly because we’ll still be a slave state per the 13th Amendment.
Mississippi should change the flag to represent all peoples living in the state. A new flag should represent freedom for everyone and not oppression to half the State. Mississippi has the potential to be the cultural and economic capital of the USA. Let the flag represent that.
E Pluribus Unum.
[1]https://www.history.com/topics/american-civil-war/confederate-states-of-america
[2] https://www.battlefields.org/learn/primary-sources/declaration-causes-seceding-states%23Mississippi
[3]https://avalon.law.yale.edu/19th_century/lincoln1.asp
[7]http://www.abrahamlincolnonline.org/lincoln/speeches/greeley.htm
[9]https://www.nps.gov/museum/tmc/Antietam/Lesson3/The%20Emancipation%20Proclamation%20text%20copy.pdf
[10]https://www.history.com/topics/us-states/west-virginia
[11]https://oksenate.gov/education/senate-artwork/surrender-general-stand-watie
[12] https://www.sos.ms.gov/Education-Publications/Documents/Downloads/Mississippi_Constitution.pdf