Most Southerners now are very grateful that Lincoln and the United States government freed the slaves. They are also very grateful that Lincoln and the United State government freed the slaveholders from their dependent, indolent lifestyles. Many of the slaveholders had convinced themselves that they could not face a future on their own without slaves to care for them. After 1865, most of the slaveholders regained their self-respect by discovering that they could survive on their own without depending on slaves.
Nearly all of them, slaves and slaveholders, and nearly all of their descendants, are grateful to Lincoln and the United States government for their freedom from slavery.
300,000 dead Rebs were sure grateful for Mr. Lincoln’s War.