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When it comes to the Confederates in the ACW how do you think they should be viewed? Should we view the people as all evil types with no love or compassion at all, or should we take how good or bad the people in it were individually?
My view of the Confederacy is that it represents an inherent flaw in the world view of Americans since the earliest time of the American Republic. As pointed out by the historian Shelby Foote the flaw is whether we view th United States of America in the singular or the plural or in other words are we an "is" or an "are", Is the United States a collection of largely independent states or a single nation. Do we view ourselves as New Yorkers, Texans or Californians first and Americans second or do we call ourselves Americans and then New Yorkers, Texans or Californians. Confederates chose the former and viewed themselves by the state they came from(They were Virginians, South Carolinians, Georgians Tenneseeans or Texans). The Confederate government was weak and a necessary evil. One of the reasons they lost the war was the Confederate government had a hard time raising, arming and feeding the armies needed to confront the Union and its forces for it lacked taxing power. Shelby Foote pointed out in Ken Burns "Civil War" that before 1860 Americans always referred to the United States in the plural i.e. The United States are..." but after 1865 is was the singular "The United States is ...". A change in viewpoint from a collection of different states with a weak minimalist Federal (central)" government subservient to the states to a nation with a strong central government that was superior to the states in all but only local affairs. Shelby said the chief outcome of the Civil war was it made the United States and "IS". Now the world view that gave us the Confederacy was not fully extinguished by the Civil War and subsequent American experience since 1865.
You find it in todays American right wing, The KKK, the Tea Party and so called Libertarians.
No country is filled entirely with evil sociopaths, just mostly normal people wanting to live life. Its when desperate uneducated people get whipped into a frenzy by demagogues like Hitler that we get trouble. The Confederacy were basically insurrectionist terrorists. They didn't fight just because they thought murdering people was fun, it was because they were propagandized into believing that slave ownership should be defended with their lives.
When it comes to the Confederates in the ACW how do you think they should be viewed? Should we view the people as all evil types with no love or compassion at all, or should we take how good or bad the people in it were individually?
Economically backwards and strong believers of rights of individual states. So far it looks like the Civil War is the most controversial topic about the history of the USA.
A sad reflection on how a few people can get hundreds of thousands of people to die for a bad idea. We have seen the same thing with us going into WW I and the Vietnam War so we did not learn from the mistake of the Civil War.
I maintain that Lincoln and the north had no right to attack the South and force them to stay in the Union. At the same time, you can't help but be glad that what resulted was the end of slavery and the country that was made.
My takeaway is how did anyone believe that slavery was okay especially so called God-fearing people.
I maintain that Lincoln and the north had no right to attack the South and force them to stay in the Union. At the same time, you can't help but be glad that what resulted was the end of slavery and the country that was made.
My takeaway is how did anyone believe that slavery was okay especially so called God-fearing people.
My understanding is that they'd quote verse from the Bible on the subject of how to treat one's slaves.
No country is filled entirely with evil sociopaths, just mostly normal people wanting to live life. Its when desperate uneducated people get whipped into a frenzy by demagogues like Hitler that we get trouble. The Confederacy were basically insurrectionist terrorists. They didn't fight just because they thought murdering people was fun, it was because they were propagandized into believing that slave ownership should be defended with their lives.
?????? the Civil War wasn't fought over slavery since slavery was protected under the constitution and only state law (state constitution) could abolished it or an amendment to the U.S. constitution which their wasn't enough votes in the north alone (forget the south) to abolish it.
Lincoln wasn't an abolitionist and had NO intention of ending slavery where it existed when he took the oath of president. The Civil War was a war of aggression and invasion from the north to the south.
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How should the Confederacy be viewed?
