The current pogrom against Southern history and symbols ignores the influence the South and the institution of slavery had on most American presidents. American history would not be the same without it. If the current goal is to purge any reminder of slavery and the Confederacy from the public sphere, then nearly every American president would have to be withdrawn from our historical consciousness. Nineteen presidents either were slaveholders, from slaveholding families, or were married into slaveholding families:
1. George Washington
2. Thomas Jefferson
3. James Madison
4. James Monroe
5. Andrew Jackson
6. Martin Van Buren
7. William Henry Harrison
8. John Tyler
9. James K. Polk
10. Zachary Taylor
11. Abraham Lincoln
12. Andrew Johnson
13. U.S. Grant
14. Benjamin Harrison
15. Theodore Roosevelt
16. Woodrow Wilson
17. Franklin D. Roosevelt
18. Jimmy Carter
19. Barack Hussein Obama
Of these nineteen, thirteen had family members who fought for the Confederacy: Washington, Jefferson, Madison, Jackson, Tyler, Polk, Taylor, Lincoln, A. Johnson, T. Roosevelt, Wilson, and Carter, while Presidents Harry Truman, Lyndon Johnson and Bill Clinton all had Confederate ancestors as well. The Clinton campaign crafted Confederate Battle Flag “Clinton/Gore” pins in 1992.
George H.W. and George W. Bush hail …
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(The opinions in this article are the opinions of the author and do not necessarily represent the views of Southern Nation News or SN.O.)