Well, I can jump in here and agree with the statement that most of the Confederates did not own slaves....I come from a long line of Tennessee and Kentucky families and none of them owned slaves at the time of the war...My one ancestor who had any dealings with slaves, lived in the area of Murfreesboro in 1780-94..I have records showing he bartered and sold, slaves and horses, to Andrew Jackson... My understanding is that the war was fought over state's rights...The Yankees(Republicans) were for big central governnemt and the Southerners(Democrats) were for minimum Federal interference and more state government...The Emancipation Proclaimation was only effective in the states that had seceded from the Union. Other states that had slaves had to do their own proclaimation after the War was over... To my mind, a true southerner is one who can be proud his ancestors stood up for what they believed, but also be proud of the United States we have now.... >OK, so who/what is a true southerner? > > >My vote for the cause of the Civil War is states' rights. > Regarding slavery:Actually, very few of the total number of southerners >owned slaves and most of the men who fought for the South were not slave >holders. >Barbara > _________________________________________________________________ MSN Photos is the easiest way to share and print your photos: http://photos.msn.com/support/worldwide.aspx