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Lincoln`s personal wishes were that all of these confederate traitors would just leave the country.
President Lincoln may have wished they all would have left, the problem of uniting our Country would have been far simpler, but President Lincoln evidenced a far greater capacity for critical thinking strategies than to grasp at the simplest solution to complex problems.
The losers of the Confederacy knew that, & perhaps that's why they did not allow him to live.
Some of the biggest losers did leave. They only returned after creating their Lost Cause mythologies with which to continue the War. Jubal Early ran away to Texas, Mexico, Cuba & Canada to write his fanciful nonsensical mythologies.
So we're unfairly overlooking the kinder, gentler forms of slavery? The good, kind masters who took great care of their livestock?
That is about as insulting as it gets. The black slaves were used to it, didn't mind too much, most slavemasters cared for their investment, and if the young black women went along with it, it's hardly rape, right? - that line of thought only exists to hand-wave away the dehumanizing humiliation inherent in the institution.
Thank you. Anyone who is trying to trivialize slavery is pretty much committing the ultimate insult at this point. Blacks were slaves, as in they didn't want to be. They put up with it, with some exceptions. America had slave rebellions, slaves ran away,etc.
Thank you. Anyone who is trying to trivialize slavery is pretty much committing the ultimate insult at this point. Blacks were slaves, as in they didn't want to be. They put up with it, with some exceptions. America had slave rebellions, slaves ran away,etc.
It's shocking that people can make themselves think that way. There was an excellent article a few years back written by a young lady who was a docent on a plantation tour - one that didn't gloss over the slavery part. She describes her struggle with the disturbingly common question: "Was the family good masters to their slaves?" How do you answer that?
President Lincoln may have wished they all would have left, the problem of uniting our Country would have been far simpler, but President Lincoln evidenced a far greater capacity for critical thinking strategies than to grasp at the simplest solution to complex problems.
The losers of the Confederacy knew that, & perhaps that's why they did not allow him to live.
Some of the biggest losers did leave. They only returned after creating their Lost Cause mythologies with which to continue the War. Jubal Early ran away to Texas, Mexico, Cuba & Canada to write his fanciful nonsensical mythologies.
About 10,000 southerners did leave. Most went to Brazil, where they would be known as "Confederados". Slavery was still legal in Brazil at the time.
I do suspect that Lincoln didn't want to create more chasms than already existed. He wouldn't have been as easy on Confederates as Andrew Johnson was.
The losers of the Confederacy might have either been in fear, or had alot of lingering anger. Many sensed a very dark period coming to the South. Most didn't leave though. Many were holding on to what was left. The KKK formed out of that lingering anger. The Lost Cause myth also formed.
In the end, the statues represented the ideals of Virginia at the time it was put up: segregation and the deification of Lee. Its removal won't solve the ills of society, but it will help stop the myth of the Lost Cause. There was no honor in the cause nor honor in its leaders. It was a tragic waste of human life and threw Virginia back 100 years.
Its up to the citizens of Richmond to make the decision of what to do with the statues owned by the city; its up to the citizens of VA to decide what to do with the Lee statue since that little circle of land is state property. The elected government for 100 years prevented its removal. The new elected government, both the legislature and the governor agree as a matter of public policy the statue needs to go and the court agrees.
Richmond is caught in a time warp in a way, one foot always stuck with those statues, its time to move on. Its no secret what those statues mean. I remember when the Arthur Ashe statue went up and the outcry from neo-Confederates about it; there is a statue of Lincoln on federal property in downtown Richmond erected in 2003, the neo-Confederates were outraged at even that, having prevented its erection in a more conspicuous space.
We lost the War, its time to get over it and move forward.
If you were a slave back then, you wouldn't be siding with the Confederacy. My ancestors were slaves. It was bad. The Confederates wanted to make sure my ancestors stayed slaves. That is bad no matter how you slice it. And to say otherwise makes a person
1) A liar
and
2) A pro-slavery bigot.
I don't care if slavery was "part of their life". If you are the slave, you aren't going to like it. I don't care about the feelings of the slave master. I don't care how "normal" it was. Normal does not equal good. Normal does not equal right.
As someone who is the descendant of slaves, trying to convince me that "it was the norm, don't look at it as bad" is the ultimate disrespect. You are essentially gaslighting me. It was an atrocity Black Americans had to go through. Black Americans weren't even classified as human beings, but property. This is why I have hatred towards the Confederacy. This is why I have a disgust for the slave owners and those who fought to keep slavery. This is why I see John Brown as a hero. He saw that violence was the most effective way to get freedom. I wish John Brown's slave rebellion had been a success. Live Free or Die is not only New Hampshire's state motto. It's MY motto.
I don't believe the bad stories we hear are anything like the normal life of most of the people back then.
Westerns make you think there were shoot outs every night in every town when in reality they almost never happened. This is what has happened to history.
It's shocking that people can make themselves think that way. There was an excellent article a few years back written by a young lady who was a docent on a plantation tour - one that didn't gloss over the slavery part. She describes her struggle with the disturbingly common question: "Was the family good masters to their slaves?" How do you answer that?
I couldn't even work on one of those plantations. Most plantations would try to gloss over the slavery part. I know why though. It would make the South really bad, and for good reason. It was bad, period. The plantation that wouldn't gloss over it, well, that such questions would be asked might be another reason some people won't talk about it.
Asking "was the family good masters to their slaves" is one of those questions that, well, it's a question one really shouldn't ask. Those slaves shouldn't have been slaves in the first place, and a question like that, well, this is how I would answer: It doesn't really matter. Slavery is slavery, and no slave master is a good master.
I don't believe the bad stories we hear are anything like the normal life of most of the people back then.
Westerns make you think there were shoot outs every night in every town when in reality they almost never happened. This is what has happened to history.
Except one thing about those westerns: I know real from fiction. I know that stuff is entertainment and take it as such. Most people who watch them know better.
You don't believe the bad stories about slavery because you don't want to believe them. You want to paint slavery as "it's alright, that was normal back then". Violence during Prohibition was common. It wasn't a good thing. Just because something was "normal" doesn't mean it was good. Bad stuff that happened during slavery, it was more common than you think.
And at the end of the day, slavery is slavery. Slaves didn't want to be slaves. When slavery was over, the former slaves were quite happy to be free.
And at the end of the day, Confederates should never be celebrated or honored, period.
South Carolinians trying to steal a federal fort in the Charleston harbor had a really bad idea. They were the cause of 700,000 deaths and the ruination of the south. YOUR state was not invaded. This southern author whose great grandfather commanded a company in the 3rd Tennessee regiment says it well. http://78ohio.org/Fellow%20Southerne...%20version.pdf
Gordon Rhea is a Southerner, AND an Historian, specializing in Civil War history. That's an excellent essay!
Quote:
Our ancestors were unapologetic about why they wanted to secede; it is up to us to take them at their word and to dispassionately form our own judgments about their actions. This is a discussion we Southerners need to have. The Sesquicentennial affords us an opportunity to insist on a fact-based dialogue about the wellsprings of secession, a dialogue based on what the participants said at the time, not what they and their apologists said later to justify their actions to posterity. We are a diverse people with a wide array of opinions. I am very happy that the Confederacy lost the Civil War, and I believe that the Confederacy’s stated goals and ideology should offend the sensibility of anyone living in our times. We ought to be able to look history squarely in the face and call it for what it was. Only by discarding the myths of the past can we move forward to an honest future.
Anyone who has ever been to Richmond is familiar with the statues of Confederate heroes along "Second Place Avenue". Those who survived the war face one way, and those who died face the other.
Removing HISTORY is idiocy. Remember when the Taliban was destroying historic icons along the old Silk Road? The world was aghast that barbarians would destroy relics that would be lost forever.
Fast forward to the US and we have the American Taliban doing the same. Banning books, "cancel culture" and tearing down statues is what totalitarians do, not free people who welcome open discourse.
Regardless of people's "feelings" toward the Confederacy, it is HISTORY which cannot be changed. Lee had a difficult decision- as an officer in the army, he had a choice of supporting his state or the federal government. He chose his state, as did many of those who served the Union. After the war, Lee was helpful in unifying the nation again.
People need to read a little about Lee before attacking his legacy and tearing down reminders of history.
What should be done with the statues? The best solution would be to move them to a Civil War battle site. If one goes to such sites (I have been to many), there are MANY such monuments there, both north and south. Interestingly, the sites of Confederate victories do not have many monuments relative to sites of Union victories.
Good! Why should statues of traitors be left standing? They should have never gone up in the first place.
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