The south was dependent on a slave population producing/selling raw materials, like cotton, rather than finished goods that have far more value. What would you rather sell, iron ore or finished steel? You can’t blame the north for that.
I prefer wearing cotton
But you can’t drive a cotton car
Two different things
The north had more coal and iron available and massive waves of hungry penniless immigrants to work
The south was primarily an agrarian place that especially after the gin stayed with slavery as the north found less use or need for it
It was a primary issue technically the expansion of it was for secession
There were other issues as well and ethnic and cultural ones you can still see today those it’s fading given how many Yankees have moved or are moving south abandoning the north and it’s perfection.
This is the issue here this thirst to assign moral perjoratives of one size fits all
It’s where some conservatives and neoconservatives go off the rails
Folks here like to argue over the causes or batttle decisions fine
But modern northerners on this forum who wish to demonize my ancestry in ways the folks who actually fought them never did is where the problem starts
Freepers calling us descendants of Nazis or hang all slave owners or think Sherman really didn’t do any harm and the Reconstruction was no big deal
Or any southern here who resists their crusade is a racist neoconfederate wishing to reinstitute slavery...so stupid
That’s the contentious stuff
The term neoconfederate is like homophobic or islamaphobe, it’s meant to shut folks down and allow the name caller to preen with self righteousness..bought for free btw at no cost
Now we have folks here who ape that mindset who are on the side of removing statues not just of my ancestors but the founders like Tom or George or Madison and even Lincoln or any white Christian who committed some race based offense like Kate Smith however insignificant
And reparations which is now basically a democrat platform
The founder of this forum gets it and God bless him for it, I’ve waited a long time here to see how this would come down
A cabal here that has spun this south hatred for 20 years doesn’t
Anyone with half a dick and a whole brain can shout from the rooftops that slavery especially if done by whites of non whites is just awful
But does that shrill tone of captain obvious accomplish one whit of preserving America in the face of what’s happening here
It feels to me like folks who do that are siding with the enemy originally at my familial expense but now it’s at the expense of the survival of the nation
We white southerners have been but two things, the nations most solid socially conservative electorate and the lowest hanging fruit for progressives and neocons
Small wonder the progressives openly attack and demonize us 24/7
That folks who call themselves conservative on this forum including some rather public and notable proclaim precisely the same platitudes and canards is troubling
Virtue signaling is a siren call many here are hopelessly addicted to and pitifully think will help convert blacks if they suck up enough but it’s helping our determined foe who insists America is one big SJW nightmare and racism is the number one bogeyman under the bed
At what point do National Review Ben Shapiro types think enough is enough
Do these south bashers ever read what Federal army contemporaries thought or other notables from Churchill to Magnus
Does anyone think these maniacs our south bashers have aligned with can be sated....
They cannot
They can only be denied and defeated
This statement makes as much sense as asking:
Which weighs more? A pound of feathers or a pound of steel?"
In reality, the South's production amounted to 73% of the total export value for the United States. The Europeans didn't need finished American goods. Their own steel products were as good or better than those the US was producing in this era.