The Blue and the Gray

How do like the new "fall look" of the blog? I personally love it! ;D Of course, I may just be biased because this is my blog.

Today I went to a friend's house (the friend that had surgery - she's doing great!) and we watched the movie "Gettysburg" with our mother's. What a sad, sad, sad day for America that was... It was a horrible battle!
Mom and I had a lively discussion with my friend and her mother about the South and North's reasons for fighting the Civil War. Many people are mis-informed and think that the Civil War was only fought because of slavery. In reality, only 25% of the South owned slaves and about half of that 25% had less than 12 slaves.
The South's reasons for seceding and their reasons for fighting were 1) They wanted to preserve their way of life. Think about it, they were very agricultural and those who grew up on plantations only knew slavery, nothing else. If slavery was abolished, how would the farms with acres upon acres upon acres of cotton be plowed and harvested? I'm not saying slavery is right... On the contrary, I think it's atrocious. 2) Because the South was very agricultural and the North was more industrial, more voting citizens lived in the North. Because of this, the North had more representation in Congress (According the the Constitution of the United States each state will have 2 senators and 1 representative for every certain number of people (when the Constitution was ratified it was 30,000 people, I believe. It has changed since then) and the South had less representation in Congress. The North would make decisions for the whole nation (because they had more congressmen which meant they had more votes) that didn't benefit the South. 3) This is perhaps the biggest reason the South seceded and fought in the Civil War. They wanted states rights. Here is a quote my mom found in a book that I think sums it up nicely:
(Uncle Clay and his niece Deborah had just visited the Yancey farm in the South).
"They (Yancey's) don't own any slaves," she (Deborah) remarked. "Is it because they think it is evil - or are they just too poor?"
"Both I guess." (Uncle) Clay shook his head with a puzzled air. "It's odd Deborah. Buford (Yancey) has told me many times he'll never own a slave, but he's also told me that nobody is going to tell him that he can't own a slave. There are lots of men like that in the South. If it came right down to it, they'd fight for the right to do as they please. That's what state's rights is all about."
(A Covenant of Love, p. 304, by Gilbert Morris)
You have to wonder, if the federal government had left the issue of slavery in the state's capable hands, would the Civil War taken place? And where would our state's rights be as of now, in 2011? Would they be better or worse? Personally I believe that things would be better off for our American nation, because the power would be with the states, where it's supposed to be. NOT with the federal government.
But I'll let you decide for yourself. =)


Here is an American Girl Doll music video I filmed a number of days ago. I would've had it made earlier but I didn't have a computer... I hope you enjoy! It sure was fun to make.



P.S. The pictures in the "Meet the Dolls" section are up!