this post was submitted on 27 Oct 2025
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Civil war (lemmy.world)
submitted 3 days ago by ickplant@lemmy.world to c/politicalmemes@lemmy.world
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[–] MystikIncarnate@lemmy.ca 2 points 2 days ago (1 children)

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.

[–] mrmaplebar@fedia.io 2 points 1 day ago

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!