Also, unlike what we did in WWII, once we devastated the south we did nothing to build it up. It fell into bitterness and poverty like nothing the country had suffered up until then. Just read the short stories of Thomas Wolfe where he recounts his family’s suffering during Reconstruction! Shocking, to say the least. It’s akin to what the allies did after WWI - doing nothing to alleviate the poverty of Germany and laying the foundation for WWII.
That is an excellent point and goes a long way to explaining the strong feelings that still reside in the heart of the south.
Some northerners might grow up to have a less bigoted view of the south if some of the less pleasant facts of the Union's conduct in and after the war were were taught in school.
But as Winston Churchill observed - “History is written by the victors.”
I would ask you to name a single instance where the loosing side of a rebellion suffered less and was incorporated back into the government faster than the southern U.S. states.
Poverty is never a rationalization or reason to kill miss marmelstein. In the end such rationalizations only create more war. The Dawes Plan did extend credit for Germany to rebuild it’s industries and by 1926 Germany was doing well. It’s one of the reasons, besides Hitler abortive putsch that the Nazis never did well in any election until The Crash of 1929 and even then,not until 1933 and only through legal means did they come to power.
“It fell into bitterness and poverty like nothing the country had suffered up until then. Just read the short stories of Thomas Wolfe where he recounts his family’s suffering during Reconstruction! Shocking, to say the least.”
In my mind that explains why the poverty mindset is so prevalent in the rural south as compared to the rural north.
Down here there extended pockets where he pride of ownership is not considered. Up north for a greater part people keep up their property.
The defeat and occupation was the root cause of 150 years of generational poverty.