Georgia - As Fucked Up As Texas

[Rahul]

I didn't say that Religion was a sole contributor. I didn't even say religion was any part of a contributor. The devastation of the war was the major contributor. Religion is the solace that the Southern people turned to in order to avoid the "hell on Earth" left over from the war.

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The really odd thing was that slaves that belonged to rich white plantation owners considered themselves higher on the social hierarchy than "Po' White Trash". Poor substenence farmers pretty much. Those same Po' White Trash considered themselves higher on the social hierarchy than the slaves.

So none of them thought they were at the bottom of the barrel. Everyone, including the slaves for the most part, considered other parts of Southern society to be beneath their station in life.

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And if we want to talk about religion about the Civil War I recommend anyone to research quaker religious zealots and the abolitionist movement in the Northern states that led to the war.

As an atheist it kind of burns us to have to admit religious people are the ones that really fired up society about Southern slavery that led to the Civil War.

But it's true.

Most Yanks didn't give a crap one way or the other. It was the radical Quakers that really fired everyone up.

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The "personal hell on Earth" was created by the Southerners themselves. Religion plays it's part, as it always does, but it's not the sole contributor to this "hell" you speak of.

And I disagree with this statement. The main thing, of course, was slavery. We can all agree that slavery in any form to any people is wrong. So that's not the discussion. Believe me, we are eternally ashamed for that.

The discussion is that the North was really concerned with what their neighbors where doing. Their neighbor's business, which wasn't really their business, was their big concern.

Were we wrong to have slaves? Fuck yeah, we were.

Did any Southern ships transport slaves from Africa to the US?

No.

They were all New England ships that did that.

And then those same New England families that became economic superpowers by transporting and selling slaves to the US start condemning the South for having those slaves that they sold to the South. The North also gradually outlawed slavery in their states. Most slave owners in those states sold them down South. So then they could act pious by saying the didn't own slaves. They sold those slaves into continued slavery in another state. They didn't do anything noble like free them. Bravo, good sir.

Did you know that even in the 1870's that if an African American visited Illinois and stayed more than two weeks they were breaking the law just for being there and would be arrested?

I mean you can understand how hypocritical that sounded to the South, right?

So the South just wanted to leave. The North and the South portions of the country were really two totally different places back then. Numerous historians have commented that the way the North treated the South back then was akin to how the UK treated it's colonies.

So the South just wanted walk away. No bloodshed, no war. Just let's go our own paths. Let's agree to disagree and walk away from each other.

The North started telling border states to raise militia to invade the Southern states and drag them back.

Four border states refused and immediately joined the secession.

Now this is all about slavery right? That's the big sin on us. We wanted to keep slaves and the North said we couldn't so we tried to leave to keep our slaves. Right?

Ever heard of the Corwin Amendment? It can be easily found all over the internet. It's historical fact, not some pseudoscience or conspiracy theory.

The Northern states proposed an amendment to the Constitution that would forever enshrine slavery as untouchable forever to prevent the South from seceding. Most of the Northern states ratified it in record time.

The South was aware of this. They didn't care.

So if the South only seceded to protect slavery, why did they keep seceding after the North gave them full protection to keep slavery intact forever?

Maybe shit is way more complicated that what it looks like on the surface and we need to really look into this in detail?

I've spent hundreds of hours researching this stuff, and I still don't think I know more than just the surface details of the events. It's going to take me a couple more decades to really start to feel like I realize what really happened.