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Entry: Learning to Love the French Link: http://www.takimag.com/site/article/learning_to_love_the_french#12349 Post contents: <<Of course, some from Dixie will find some laughable way to blame anti-war New England WASPs for the Southern love of bombing and invading other countries! A gold star to the poster with the most creative way of blaming anybody but their fellow “Southrons">> I'll try for the "gold star"! The South was populated by an "underclass" not much different from their Northern counterparts - dirt farmers, no slaves, manufacturers, but not on the scale of New England, predominantly Calvinists in their worldview, etc. Really, by the time of the War Between the States and the Civil War, there just was not much difference between the general population in both countries (North and South). The major difference was in the leadership of the two countries. The USofA was controlled by people selected by a majority of the people, and that leadership reflected the people themselves, small farmers, manufacturers, Calvinists, etc. The South was controlled by a group of people that came to power via a bloodless coup, that is, until the Civil War(s) started, as a direct result of the War Between the States. For example, the VAST majority of the State of Alabama did not want to secede from the USofA, they had no real fight against the Northern industrialists, and didn't particularly care to fight for anyone's Negro slaves. However, the vote to secede was done county-by-county, and the slave population was included in determining the number of delegates a county could send to the election. Of Alabama's 100 counties, only 52 voted to secede, but if a general election were held, the vote would have been overwhelmingly in favor of staying in the Union, and out of the fight, which, at that point was pretty much only between the State of South Carolina and the Union. So, the South surrendered, and what was left of the old Plantation Culture was DESTROYED by the Reconstruction, and what was left of the old Hillbilly culture was DESTROYED by the Reconstruction. The South was no more by the end of the 19th century. Almost the entire population had been Reconstructed into good little Yankees, practicing prohibition, public schooling, and religious fundamentalism, among other nasty Yankee habits. The Modern South is no longer the Old South, that Old South is dead, and can only be resurrected if the people were to drop their love of Revolution. Alas, that is not likely - there are not enough counterrevolutionaries in even the West, much less the totally Reconstructed South. Sent at: 2008 11 23