Yep, my folks go back a ways also Raster. My folks fought for independence.
Preserving the Union was an empty slogan, they split the nation in half and raped the South. They took our banks, railroads, and everything that wasn't nailed down and left us nothing but subsistence farming.
Not much to be proud of there.
If StoneWall can't take advice, have at it
That's it for me on this debate.
Share cropping and other things that happened after the Civil War were unfair to the South, but none of that would have happened if they hadn't brought the war on themselves. No one is arguing that the North didn't do some things that were wrong, but the things that the North did that were wrong and unfair after the war wouldn't have happened if there hadn't been a war. And frankly, if the North had been REALLY bad, they could have executed the leaders of the Union, both political and military and they did not do that. The leadership of the Union is lucky they didn't meet with ropes and bullets in the late 1860s. And the southern Democrats did more then their share to keep blacks in bondage, forcing them to vote Democrat, creating the KKK, lynching and murdering blacks to keep them "in line", on and on and on. 90% of the bad that happened to the South in the 1800s and the first half of the 1900's was brought about be their own actions. The South carried out the actions they chose, and with action comes consequence. Don't do the crime if you can't do the time. The South paid a heavy price, and they earned it too.