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Since both parts of America participated in slavery and it began in the north primarily. And died out there first because the north was industry and not fit for rice and indigo growing. And since the idea of slavery began in Britain and France and the granting of large plantations to grow rice, indigo and probably hemp was mostly to sons of wealthy British (and French) is it wrong to wear apparel with the British icon. And fly that flag and the French flag. How about the original slave traders and catchers in the middle east and Africa, some still in business. And what about the Scot, Irish, but mostly England business owners and governments who enslaved and sent the original slaves to America who happened to be white. And the native American tribes who caught and sold native American slaves to rich people.

An argument can be made that the most put upon people in America were the Scots, Irish and British poor who were originally brought here as slaves then some as cannon fodder since many whites in the north wanted no part of fighting the civil war. Or settlement fodder early on with little chance of survival. The poor were put to work in sweat shops and industries in the north even as 9 year olds and many were killed or maimed. And the poor whites in the south who were manipulated into fighting basically 1300 wealthy families fight since they were desperate for a paycheck. And were compelled by the draft to fight against their own best interests. Many of whom were worse off than slaves. Since they had no idea how they were going to eat tomorrow and at least the slaves were being fed and housed and clothed. They were natural farmers and struggled to share crop because of slavery. In the short term the south losing the war was the best thing that ever happened since they now had value as share croppers. Before a slave had value and a poor white had none. The idea was floated at the beginning of the war to use slaves to fight but that was quickly shot down by the rich who owned them in favor of using poor whites. Simply because slaves were highly valued and poor whites had zero value.

Slavery was and is horrible. The worst coming out of people of power. Of all races. And the south is still negatively affected by the aftermath of it and the civil war economically, educationally and socially. And the poor blacks and whites in the south are still paying a price. Read Rick Bragg's "All over but the shoutin'" to see who most people in the south my age lived. The only thing worse than the south losing the civil war for the average white person in the south would have been for the south to have won it. Even with the vindictiveness of the sham called "reconstruction". Which lead to the ultimate hostility between the races as both were put into competition for survival. So when I see a Confederate flag I see a piece of cloth. A symbol of oppressed people, white and black to some sure but no more than the American flag. And I was raised to look at it (Confederate flag) as a symbol of pride. More manipulation. It means nothing to me since we all are Americans, right or wrong. BTW I served under the American flag back in the sixties but was still regularly and sarcastically reminded of "you rebels this and that" by ignorant whites and blacks. Frick 'em both. The black soldiers hung together and so did the southern white soldiers and there was a reason for that.

The part that you seem to lose in all of this is that only ONE entity was determined to continue forth on the slavers' path...and that is the one associated with the battle flag of the Army of Northern Virginia. Scotland, Britian, "the North" - they all abolished the slave trade and then slavery itself. Sorry you can't see the difference.

Also, the majority of the iconography associated with the rebel flag was from the 20th century, when it was explicitly invoked as a symbol of white supremacy and Jim Crow. The famous South Carolina "statehouse" flag didn't even go up until 1961 or so - as an overt middle finger to the civil rights movement.