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The Confederate Flag Dispute Essay

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The Confederate Flag Dispute

The start of the Confederate flag controversy was due to the request of the NAACP to remove the flag off of South Carolina’s Statehouse. This request is based on the fact that they, the anti-flag groups, claim that the meaning of the Confederate flag is one of hate and discrimination. On the other hand, there are other groups that believe differently whom are called the pro-flag groups. They claim that the flag is a sign of heritage and should stay on the Statehouse. Liberals tend to be in the favor of the anti-flag groups, and conservatives are more likely to be supporting pro-flag groups. Both sides use evidential logos to prove their arguments, and pathos to show how wrong the other side is.

Eric …show more content…

In the first paragraph he mostly provides the background with claims made by pro-flag groups of the reason why the flag should stay flying. Foner writes, “the Confederate flag, they tell us, represents not slavery but local identity, a way of life and respect for “heritage”(par. 1). He uses the claims made by the pro-flag groups against them by making them sound unbelievable. “Some defenders of the flag go so far as to paint the pre-Civil War South as a multicultural paradise…”(Foner par. 1).

Foner believes that the main cause of the Civil War was the south’s opposition to freeing slaves. He believes that slavery was the big reason why the Civil War was started and that all of the other issues stemmed off of it. He then uses logos by explaining how the Declaration of the Immediate Causes of Secession shows evidence of this in its causes of secession. “To understand what the flag now flying in Columbia represents, one need only read the Declaration of Immediate Causes of Secession, adopted by South Carolina secession convention in December 1860”(Foner par. 2). Foner gives some examples of the declaration being about slavery by quoting some things it stated, and one quotation out of the Declaration of Immediate Causes of Secession is about Lincoln being a man “whose opinions and purposes are hostile to slavery.” This quote proves that South Carolina was seceding because of Lincoln’s negative ideas about slavery. He adds also the

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