Editor, Gazette-Journal:

Peggy Newsome (“What ideas does he mean?” Nov. 18 Readers Write), we may not know each other, but you are one of my heroes. Finally, a letter on a current topic that provides the references for the truth of the author’s position.

More often than not, we are bombarded with alleged facts without the first bit of evidence to back them up. No references, quotes or other documentation that will validate the author’s opinions which are presented as facts.

Peggy, I would add one more item to your excellent letter. Slavery was, in fact, a major issue in the South’s secession. It was the economic engine that drove the cotton industry to be the largest in the world and created unheard-of numbers of millionaires. (Bateman, Fred; Weiss, Thomas Joseph (2017) [Copyright 1981]. “A Deplorable Scarcity: The Failure of Industrialization in the Slave Economy,” University of North Carolina Press, p. 4, 42. Also, The History Channel, 3/6/2018.)

Michael BeaversPort Hayw...