It’s not so black and white.
…
It’s only 3/5ths black and white
this statement along with people telling me to “make up my own mind about the causes”… is infuriating.
the civil war WAS about southern states rights…to determine which human beings they could enslave and how many. any other reason given is incomplete, not truthful and completely misses the point.
It was such a a shock moving to North Carolina and realizing this shit is real.
Yes, it’s exactly that black and white. The southern states explicitly cited slavery as their reason for secession, it wasn’t some afterthought or side benefit.
You can read their letters here: https://www.battlefields.org/learn/primary-sources/declaration-causes-seceding-states
If the last decade has taught me anything, it’s that the civil war never ended.
Many of today’s Republicans would be perfectly happy to bring back slavery, but just like they wouldn’t cop to Project 2025, they just don’t feel that the overton window has shifted quite enough yet to be comfortable admitting it.
It seems to me, as an outsider, that the union should have never accepted the surrender of the Confederates, and instead, kept going until every last racist was shot and killed.
But, two things about that… Even after being “freed”, people of color were still second class citizens, at best, and segregation continued for many years beyond the end of the war. So the problem didn’t just magically go away when the slaves were freed. There were plenty of racist pieces of shit that were happy to see the blacks isolated into their own space, far away from them …
So I’m not sure killing all of the Confederates would have made a huge difference.
The war didn’t end, they just stopped saying certain things out loud. They also were far from the only racists in the country.
I’m so disappointed that there was so much progress with Obama, and he was such a good president (by comparison)… It seemed like the USA was on the way to a golden era of acceptance and equality for all… Then this shit happened. It’s like the racists were so pent up and they finally felt so oppressed by all the DEI that they hulked out and they’re trying to take over, and undo the “damage” (as they see it) to the country over the last ~160 years since the civil war ended.
But WTF do I know? I’m just some guy who doesn’t even live in the USA.
I agree with you.
Keep in mind that as the American civil war was winding down President Abraham Lincoln was assassinated, and so his Vice President, Andrew Johnson rose to power.
Following Lincoln’s assassination in April 1865, Johnson became president. Johnson’s Reconstruction policies were lenient compared to those of the Radical Republicans. This dispute represented the conflict that many War Democrats faced, in that they supported the Union but did not wish to severely punish former Confederates or strongly protect the rights of former slaves. In the 1868 lead up to the first post-Civil War presidential election, President Johnson was a candidate for the Democratic Party presidential nomination; however, he finished second in the 22 ballots cast at the Democratic Convention, and lost the nomination to former New York Governor Horatio Seymour, a former Copperhead.[4] Lincoln appointed other War Democrats to high civil and military offices. Some joined the Republican Party, while others remained Democrats. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/War_Democrat
(Note: keep in mind that the “democrats” and “republicans” political alignment flipped around the time of the New Deal, so during the time of the Civil War, it was the Republicans (like Lincoln) that represented the northern Union states, while the Democrats represented the southern Confederate states. “War Democrats” (like Johnson) were democrats who supported the Union. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fifth_Party_System)
And now for a bit of Civil War conspiracy theory…
The events of the [Lincoln] assassination resulted in speculation, then and subsequently, concerning Johnson and what the conspirators might have intended for him. In the vain hope of having his life spared after his capture, Atzerodt spoke much about the conspiracy, but did not say anything to indicate that the plotted assassination of Johnson was merely a ruse. Conspiracy theorists point to the fact that on the day of the assassination, Booth came to the Kirkwood House and left one of his cards with Johnson’s private secretary, William A. Browning. The message on it was: “Don’t wish to disturb you. Are you at home? J. Wilkes Booth.”[121] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Andrew_Johnson
Make of that what you will!
“Not so black and white?” Friend (derogatory), it’s literally one of the two black and white things we all agreed on until like 10 years ago
While you’re exactly right on the topic, your timing’s a bit off.
Racist American assholes have been lying about the civil war since 1865.
Yes, and in the deep red rural area where I grew up there were a few people who did, but they were very widely recognized as fringe.
It’s wild to me how persistent the lost cause mythology is considering the articles of succession from the traitor states are all out there in the open to be read by anyone at any time. I suppose that requires literacy and an understanding of what a primary source is. Easier to get some bullshit regurgitated into your mouth like a baby bird.
Exactly. “it’s not so black and white” when the motivations behind it all were indeed, printed in black and white and very much about black and white people at that.
That’s just like your opinion, man. Fake news, as thought by someone who hasn’t read any of the primary source documents publicly available.
Tbh, its hard to ignore the bullshit getting regurgitated when you are still literally a child. I heard about the “war of northern aggression” in elementary school when we covered the civil war.
They are literally grooming our children into this.
Even in CA, we had a Texan middle school teacher who drilled into our heads like a mantra that the Civil War was about disagreements over States’ rights/tariffs/etc.
What a loser. I had a high school teacher from North Carolina that would jokingly call it the war of northern aggression, but she was smart enough to point out to us why that notion was bullshit before playing heel.
Traitors flying the Confederate flag on their house whining about “muh heritage” when I practice my heritage (its tearing down their flags, burning their houses, and confiscating all their property):
The only confederate flag that ever mattered was the white one they waved at the end of the War for Continuation of Slavery.
“the war that was so easy to put down it was shorter than high school.”
The racists’ “Heritage” was shorter than Obama’s presidency and happened 8 score years ago.
“State’s right to do what, exactly?”
Usually shuts them up.
The ‘little dicks’ part was unnecessary.
You can make a great argument against the Confederate flag without resorting to toxic masculinity.
It’s not toxic masculinity to view large male genitals as more masculine. Sure, it’s sexist small-minded heteronormative bullshit, but it’s not toxic masculinity.
(Toxic masculinity as generally used refers to ideas about how men or boys should behave which are not compatible with either a healthy society or an individual’s mental health. )
(There’s some variance on this where it shares some overlap with “hyper masculine” folks who have unusual presentations of characteristics usually caused by the male sex hormone, but I believe smaller genitals are also a potential consequence of excess steroids or testosterone.)
I call it the “Slaveholders Rebellion”.
Funny, that’s what we call the American war of independence.
