The Confederacy was an Evil Empire

[rightwinger]

I do not believe that at all. Do you believe blacks quit hating whites?

I think it was the other way around

 

[Robert W]

I think it was the other way around

Blacks had according to their apologists far more reasons to hate whites than what you believe.

 

[mikegriffith1]

The ill-advised formation of the Confederacy should serve as a warning to modern Americans to not let extreme vocal minorities dictate policy and to not be swayed by news outlets that promote their divisive views. When one side starts demonizing the other side as evil and as an existential threat, this is dangerous ground. When both sides start painting each other in this way, this is even more dangerous and poses the real risk of eventual civil war.

Southern Fire-Eaters vastly exaggerated the threat posed by the Republican Party and by the abolitionists (who were still markedly unpopular in the North as of 1860). The Abolitionists vastly exaggerated the threat posed by the slaveholding aristocracy, blathering on about a "Slave Power conspiracy" (no such conspiracy existed, and wealthy slaveholders were sharply divided over several issues relating to slavery). A substantial majority of Americans favored a middle-of-the-road approach, favored compromise, but the two extremes rejected this and pushed the country to war.

Similarly, woke Democrats are wildly exaggerating the threat posed by Donald Trump. Blindly partisan Republicans are wildly exaggerating the threat posed by Kamala Harris and Tim Walz and are falsely portraying Biden as an abject failure. The substantial majority of Americans are somewhere in the middle and favor compromise and bi-partisan solutions. But, most news outlets are painting one side or the other as the devil, as evil incarnate, as a "threat to democracy," etc.

 

[rightwinger]

The ill-advised formation of the Confederacy should serve as a warning to modern Americans to not let extreme vocal minorities dictate policy and to not be swayed by news outlets that promote their divisive views.

Without secession, slavery would have faded away within 20 years. The institution was not sustainable in a modern society.

Slaves would have been eventually emancipated and slave owners would have been compensated. Slavery would have been replaced by a second class citizenship much like Jim Crow.

Instead, slavery was outlawed in four years, slaves were freed, given the vote and full citizenship. The Klan was quickly formed to keep blacks in their place through terrorism.

 

[surada]

For over a hundred and fifty years, the legacy of the Confederacy has been sold as a noble Lost Cause of states defending their states rights.

The reality is that the Confederacy was an Evil Empire. One of the worst nations in the history of mankind.

The Confederacy was built on ensuring that the institution of slavery would exist forever,
The Confederacy kept 40 percent of its population in bondage.
The economy of the Confederacy was built around enforced free labor. Labor enforced by whip and chain.
The Confederacy used women for breeding and then sold the children.
The Confederacy considered human slaves as no more than livestock

By any valuation, this was pure EVIL and should never be defended or honored in todays society.

Horseshit. They were just planters. Slavery was wrong, but it was the norm for thousands of years.

 

[Robert W]

Without secession, slavery would have faded away within 20 years. The institution was not sustainable in a modern society.

Slaves would have been eventually emancipated and slave owners would have been compensated. Slavery would have been replaced by a second class citizenship much like Jim Crow.

Instead, slavery was outlawed in four years, slaves were freed, given the vote and full citizenship. The Klan was quickly formed to keep blacks in their place through terrorism.

The Klan was formed to keep citizens safe from the Union.

 

[surada]

That excuse is used to defend those in the Confederacy. Only a small percentage actually owned the slaves so nobody else is culpable

40 percent were in slavery. The entire southern economy depended on that free labor. Even if you did not own slaves, you still benefited from a slave economy

Those soldiers who charged Cemetery Hill may not have owned slaves but the survivors still went on to join the Klan and enforce Jim Crow.

It wasn't free labor. Slaves required housing, food and essential care. Don't make it worse than it was.

 

[surada]

The Klan was formed to keep citizens safe from the Union.

The plan was formed for the purpose of law and order when there was none after the civil war...

 

[BackAgain]

The entire America benefited from slavery, inluding all of us today.

 

[BackAgain]

Very true

But there is no justification to celebrate that history

None? Maybe not to you or to me. But I don’t think you have the goods to speak for all.

 

[rightwinger]

It wasn't free labor. Slaves required housing, food and essential care. Don't make it worse than it was.

Slaves raised or grew their own food, built their slave quarters

 

[Deadstick]

The Klan was formed to keep citizens safe from the Union.

It was formed to keep negroes in their place, they were vile ignorant individuals lynching people up to the 1960s.

 

[Deadstick]

Slaves raised or grew their own food, built their slave quarters

where they were at the mercy of racist plantation owners whipped and raped, it's hard to believe anyone can try and justify this horror in this day and age.

 

[Deadstick]

The part of the UK where i live was the main area of the cotton weaving industry, the mill owners were very rich, they had Mansions built, but from 1861 to 1865 there was a cotton famine that was because the cotton workers in Lancashire refused to work with imports of cotton from the Confederates and i must say to their own detriment, they sided with the Union, people in the Union states sent food parcels for the Lancashire cotton workers so they wouldn't starve, later President Lincoln thanked them.

Feature: British workers and the American civil war