[BuffaloJack]

North & South would probably not be as hot an issue today had it not been for the Reconstruction Period after the war when land and property were seized from many Southern families and most Southerners had their right to vote suspended. It was these acts that forced the bitterness and polarization of the races that persists to present times. As far as the emancipation of the slaves went, the South embraced it better than the North. The North feared an influx of cheap former slave labor from the South and the labor unions fought it in an attempt to save the jobs of their members. The Battle Flag never became a symbol of racism until the civil rights movement of the 50s and 60s, where it was trotted out with every confrontation. It’s too bad that it became a symbol of something that it was never meant to represent.

[beckysueb]

Excellent post.

[Between the Lines]

North & South would probably not be as hot an issue today had it not been for the Reconstruction Period after the war when land and property were seized from many Southern families and most Southerners had their right to vote suspended. It was these acts that forced the bitterness and polarization of the races that persists to present times.

Great post! It is kind of an irony that we have the Radical Republicans to thank for this North vs South issue.