Abbott Laboratories Message Board

Widespread ignorance of history is the reason for the PC's general misimpression that the Confederate flag is about racism, and that the Civil War was fought to free the slaves. In fact, its cause was more about lack of common cultural bonds between North and South, and disparate economic interests such as free trade. South had greater ties to Europe and wanted low tariffs, because it was an importer/exporter, while North wanted high tariffs to protect its fledgling industry. Lincoln had no great love for slaves. He issued the Emancipation Proclamation two years into that war, not as some compassionate act toward the slaves, but as a tactical move. England had abolished slavery earlier, and he counted on strong abolitionist sentiment in that country to prevent its coming into the war on the side of the Confederacy, to which it had close ties.
My belief is that the people who adorn their cars/trucks with that symbol now, here in the North and elsewhere, are more about making an anti-establishment statement than expressing bigotry.