So after the confederacy lost, your family lost their farm to their new oppressors and had to live as vagrants until they pulled themselves back up by their own bootstraps, right?
OR, was your family and their farm fine because, spoiler alert, the war wasn’t about YOU and the union gave less than 2 shits about your spit of land?
So their farm was saved by fighting for the losing side? The battle flag equivalent to a participation award for last place? Over 150 years ago? That proud heritage?
It would be interesting to ask him if he has any documentation to back up his fairy tale of the family farm heritage. Anything. Even some pics of his ancestors. His family heritage story is a bullshit lie he tells to in an attempt to justify his racism.
One in three families in the confederate states owned at least one slave. And those that didn't could still rent one. It is asinine to pretend that slavery was a fringe phenomenon in the slave states. They were so called for a reason.
Yeah, my thoughts exactly - my grandfather was a literal Nazi but you don't see me flying that shit or "supporting the heritage" or whatever. He was wrong and I understand that, and make attempts to be better than he was. America is in dire need of some Vergangenheitsbewältigung.
What not enough people, even anti-slavery people, realize is majority of people who fought for the confederacy weren't rich enough to own slaves. Only a small percentage of the southerners were but those southern elites effectively convinced poor whites that fighting for them was in their best interest by playing on their racism and fears..... some things never change.
I like how it seems that he (almost) catches himself after that comment. Part of his “brain” thinking maybe “affordability” is not the hill to die on in regards to slavery…
We-e-e-e-lll..... it was a bit more complicated (and horrific) than that. Slaves could be owned or part owned by individuals, families and businesses that did not make use of them themselves but rented them out (like farm machinery). Some very middle class people derived direct financial benefit from slavery.
This website ( https://www.ucl.ac.uk/lbs/ ) has some nasty surprises in store. Not a single thing to be remotely proud of.
just because your ancestors did some stupid fucking bullshit doesn't mean that those traditions are worth holding on to. be better than the last generation.
It has nothing to do with that, it never does. These people are just racists, and they think flying that flag gives their racism some legitimacy, and it does, just not in the way they think it does. But this guy is a good example of being too stupid to realise that.
Pokémon Go has more history than the confederacy. Every 5 year old has more history than the confederacy. Your fucking “heritage” lmao give me a fucking break.
Yes and yes. I stopped for about a year after hitting level 40 and my account didn't go anywhere so if you know your credentials it's probably still waiting for you.
yep! there's still a pretty active playerbase and the game is actively getting updates and events. i live in a town of ~31k people and we have a regular group with weekly raid nights and get-togethers for events. our group ranges from people who have played since 2016, to on-and-off players like myself, to folks who have only started recently, so there's no problem with starting now!
Well this is the thing: his family probably was poor, and did fight for the flag thinking somehow that they were fighting to save their farm. But then, just as to today, they were getting duped into supporting a cause that was not in their economic interest
For many it really didn't matter if they actually had slaves or not, slavery still represented a way for them to enshrine the superiority of white people into law and that's what they cared about. They hated the idea of black people being put on an equal level with white people as human beings. Sure, they may not own slaves, but they still got to FEEL superior to black people regardless.
The easiest way to determine: how would they lose this farm? The north wasn't fighting a war of aggression. The southern people that were 'merely there' were not at threat of having their land sized by northern invaders. If the south lost the war, his family would just be back to being part of the US instead of the Confederacy with no change in their land status.
Actually they would have had a better chance without slavery, because slave holders had an unfair advantage over small farms because of virtually free labor… Same reason why today it’s very hard for small businesses to compete against big corporations that pay slave wages…
Odd are his family didn't fight for that flag, because that was simply the flag of the 28th Virginia regiment. It only started to represent the whole confederacy in the 1900's as an overtly racist symbol. So even if his family was just fighting to save their farm, his flying that flag has nothing to do with it.
I mean, paying the mob protection money is generally in your economic interest. Even if they didn't believe a scrap of it dodging the draft was a risk.
The Confederacy is NOBODY'S "heritage." Nobody grew up in the CSA, nobody raised a family in the CSA, nobody took on their dad's business in the CSA. They didn't have time, it only lasted a hair over 4 years - 51 months. Nirvana lasted longer than the CSA, Star Trek Voyager lasted longer than the CSA. The fucking Pontiac Aztec lasted longer than the CSA. I can claim the PT Cruiser as my heritage more than the CSA, because it lasted longer, too.
Nice analogy in regards to claiming it was a heritage… but I’m thinking they are usually referring to the racism as the heritage… whether they realize it or not.
Exactly this. Not much has changed. The same 'salt of the earth' folks think that fighting for *Rump or conservatism/nationalism is gonna save their farm or their pension or healthcare. Save their jobs from the brown hoards over-running our borders, or keep their kids from turning gay from listening to a trans-woman read to them in a library. Ignorance. It's always been about fear brought on by ignorance and hatred brought about by fear.
Yup. The ironic thing is, if they were poor farmers, the abolishment of slavery would have been in their best interest. It's hard to compete in a marketplace that employs slavery when you don't.
Had multiple family members fight and some die as Confederate soldiers. None owned slaves. Hell none of their parents owned slaves. They were white sharecroppers. They fought for the same reason a lot of people enlist today. They were broke 18-22 year olds who were promised a snazzy uniform and easy money and a quick turn around to a better life. The ones in power are very rarely the ones who do the dying.
In the civil war, rich people paid poor people to fight for them. It was the substitute law. When drafted, rich people paid for another person to take their place.
I appreciate this look into your family. I was a young adult who joined the military for money and stability and ended up serving in the Iraq war, and I would never consider it a moment of pride in my life. It wasn't until I years later that I fully understood what I was involved with, and how shitty it was to so many people. I cannot and will not judge a person for participating in a war no matter the side, unless they orchestrated atrocities or support them.
The vast majority of Confederate soldiers were all in on preserving slavery and the inferiority of black people. Their generals would motivate them by telling them the north wanted to take their lands and make black men their equal. The Confederacy used conscripted slaves on a massive scale for transportation and construction of military defenses. They knew. They approved. https://acwm.org/blog/myths-and-misunderstandings-slaveholding-and-confederate-soldier/
Confederate propaganda was based entirely around preserving the institution of slavery and the fundamental inferiority of black people. They put it into their constitution, in all their letters of secession, and their VP gave a big, public speech about it that was publicized to the masses called the Cornerstone Speech. The average Confederate soldier might have many personal reasons for enlisting, but all of them knew (and likely the vast majority agreed with) what they were fighting for.
Oh they knew. I just don't think the poor enlisted ones cared that much. Fuck revisionist history that tries to say anything but that the Civil War was about slavery to the people in charge. The people in power cared because that was the cornerstone of their economic and political control. But even today the majority of people who enlist in the US army do so for economic stability and opportunities not because they have a driving need to spread democracy.
The vast majority of Confederate soldiers were all in on preserving slavery and the inferiority of black people. Their generals would motivate them by telling them the north wanted to take their lands and make black men their equal. Most of them cared just as much as their leaders and moneyed powers did: https://acwm.org/blog/myths-and-misunderstandings-slaveholding-and-confederate-soldier/
So, your family farm was poor due to the unfair competition from rich farms worked by slave labor. And now you're carrying the slavers' flag because...?
because back then his family was "middle class", not slave owners, but also not slaves, there were people below them, which made them feel better about themselves despite not being at the top...now there are no slaves anymore so his poor family is lower class, which they dont like...they want the "good old times" back where everything was worse than today except they could feel better about it because others had it a lot more worse than them...and those others were black, which is a plus to them
Yeah... I keep saying this, but one major thing to understand about pecking orders and social food chains is that while it's nice to be on top of one, it's ABSOLUTELY CRUCIAL to NOT be at the bottom.
Funny thing is, if there was secession his heritage farmland would have gone up in value as the economy reacted to the dramatic increase of farm products without slave labor.
If he could talk to his actual ancestors they would tell them how shitty it was losing harvested crop value to rich immoral thieves that this tomato man glorifies.
idk you say that but seems his set of ancestors were the type that blah blah blahed their grudge about loosing onto their grandkids and thats why you got him spouting that bs now cause it was passed down... or they were so stubbornly proud of their bs. like idk how your grandparents talked but yeah at family reunions there was always one or two elder folks that talked like that and man i feel bad for the kids on that side of the family that had to deal with them on the regular lol...
The south continued to be a horrible place for generations after the fall of the Confederacy, effecting all poor people. The economic structres made it so a disease called pellagra was endemic to southern states until the 50's, because it's actually a severe vitamin deficiency caused by eating extremely nutrient poor diets for 5 months or more https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pellagra
Fun Fact: his family was likely forced into the CSA army after the secession, at threat of imprisonment and or more drastic commandeering of property that was already happening.
The CSA leadership were rich men who never worked a field, the soldiers sent to die were literally "dirt poor" as in they often had dirt floors inside their homes.
The largely pardoned leadership of the traitors allowed the rich to rewrite the narrative in the South, and within a generation it was glorified.
I mean, most of them were willing participants, they feared servile insurrection, and actively fought to preserve slavery because they wanted to, not because they were forced. See soldiers diaries and the pro-union regiments raised in Confederate states.
Per the National Park Service: "Confederate soldiers were primarily volunteers who enlisted for a variety of reasons... whether their families owned slaves or not, many believed that two fundamental aspects of Southern society, white liberty and black slavery, were under threat by a Federal government dominated by the North."
"I'm taking your best horse and half your stored grain. Volunteer to walk to the front lines and fight for my right to own 50 slaves or we can do this the hard way."
Look, if you want to ignore history to feel better about 200 year old racists, I can't stop you. But lost cause bullshit is just post-hoc lies made up by these racist fucks when they lost. These same 'poor conscripts who didn't believe in slavery' then just lynched freed slaves and their descendants for 100 years, so I'd say they were on board with the status quo.
It's absolutely wild how a small group of people convinced so much of the south that the civil war was NOT about slavery, but about heritage and "rights". No that doubt his family was worse off because of the confederacy and slavery - owning people was helpful only for the wealthy. The fact people are still so vested against their own interest, and really against their own heritage is absolutely tragic.
Reconstruction era South was a terrible place to live.
As much as the rich slaver cunts got away with it all, the economy of the South faltered... to this day. The poor farmers and workers were the ones paying the price for the war after it and then they were told to blame the North.
Even in Jones County Mississippi, where the majority of voters were against secession, forced to secede anyway and forced at gun point to serve the CSA army but then ran back home to fight the CSA from inside the Jones County swamps the rest of the war...
Where the slaves were the primary spies supplying the Jones County Rangers with information and supplies.
Years after the war ended, a community school house was built, but then one man was told that only his white children could attend...
But his mixed kids with his second wife, a freed slave, we're not allowed to attend.
That building mysteriously burned down soon after. Newt Knight went from a living hero fighting an evil tyranny to a hated traitor for the crime of defending his own land and community, within his own lifetime.
Andrew Johnson, possibly? (Though if I had only one shot at going back in time to kick a 19th century President in the nuts, I personally would take my shot at Andrew Jackson.)
68mano
No one was out to take his family's farm in the first place.
modis
So after the confederacy lost, your family lost their farm to their new oppressors and had to live as vagrants until they pulled themselves back up by their own bootstraps, right?
OR, was your family and their farm fine because, spoiler alert, the war wasn’t about YOU and the union gave less than 2 shits about your spit of land?
soxmonky
SleepyHollowAppleTree
echonite
"Its my heritage"... so your heritage is loser slave owners?
andaction
So their farm was saved by fighting for the losing side? The battle flag equivalent to a participation award for last place? Over 150 years ago? That proud heritage?
jumpbus360
What a hill to die on. "My ancestors died so a bunch of wealthy landowners could have cheap forced labor."
UnknownParticipant67
It would be interesting to ask him if he has any documentation to back up his fairy tale of the family farm heritage. Anything. Even some pics of his ancestors.
His family heritage story is a bullshit lie he tells to in an attempt to justify his racism.
thechelonianshelmet
"My family couldn't afford slaves, so they went & fought in the war to help the rich farms keep their slaves." What utterly sad logic this is.
inchoroi
You can see the short circuit in his brain.
Pwilson68
Ya well the swastika flag was the heritage back in 1940 and no one flys it anymore. Wake up and learn from history you moron snowflake
InfocalypseRising
“We WOULD have had slaves if we could afford them! Checkmate liberal!”
Allrighty
One in three families in the confederate states owned at least one slave. And those that didn't could still rent one. It is asinine to pretend that slavery was a fringe phenomenon in the slave states. They were so called for a reason.
dswagz
that moment when he said the thing
PandoBox
For a brief instant, the two neurons collided and a spark was born. A spark lost in the infinite void.
machmach
taez555
UnknownParticipant67
Mouth breather
mygodhasabiggerdick
If a German tried that shit here in Munich, they would need a police escort out of there, or an ambulance.
I am fucking so tired of dumbasses and this shit. Pokemon GO! has been around longer than the Confederacy. You fucking lost. Deal with it.
petkorazzi
Yeah, my thoughts exactly - my grandfather was a literal Nazi but you don't see me flying that shit or "supporting the heritage" or whatever. He was wrong and I understand that, and make attempts to be better than he was.
America is in dire need of some Vergangenheitsbewältigung.
CraftyGiant
That looks like a neat german word for something incredibly specific.
fractalsphere
The look of realization hahaha
pretendthisisagoodusername
What not enough people, even anti-slavery people, realize is majority of people who fought for the confederacy weren't rich enough to own slaves. Only a small percentage of the southerners were but those southern elites effectively convinced poor whites that fighting for them was in their best interest by playing on their racism and fears..... some things never change.
RuffyRuffHausen
The moment when you see the cogs starts turning
MapleSyrupMafia
Sadly for him, there is no lubricant, so it will only hurt as the gears grinds themselves into sparkly material.
xETM
The near audilble grinding of the gears suggest it's been a long time...
Beelsebooob
“If they were working the farm all by themselves, why would the farm collapse if slavery were abolished?”
Affray
The duped farmers:
v
cdlong
When you figure this out, let me know, I was thinking the same thing.
waterdragun
He is referring to 1 set of great-great-…-grandparents. What about the others? Didn’t any of them have any heritage to pass along?
TalkingSnake
I think one of his grandfather's was a member of the legion 105, but I don't see that local flag over his shoulder.
waterdragun
I think one of his great grannies was a mill worker but I don’t see him advocating for 1950s textiles
Jackpot7777777
It's possible his family tree is a flag pole.
somethingsomethingwittyhere
Genes so valuable, that you MUST keep them in the family...
DisgruntledFerret
Pff, hillbilly Hapsburgs.
TheOneTrueZippy8
"Do you know how much a slave cost back then ?" is an odd thing to be concerned about.
countbassy
‘Bout tree fiddy
poundingCode
I like how it seems that he (almost) catches himself after that comment. Part of his “brain” thinking maybe “affordability” is not the hill to die on in regards to slavery…
fartser
I liked that part too, its like he's just realizing what he said.
OptimusPom
I see, the war was fought over "farm equipment".
TheOneTrueZippy8
Once again...... a bit more complicated than that. Money, you will unsurprised to hear, was also a considerable factor.
DisgruntledFerret
...I guess it IS worth noting that then, as now, it was the rich who got the poor to die for their convenience. Why be proud of that though?
TheOneTrueZippy8
We-e-e-e-lll..... it was a bit more complicated (and horrific) than that. Slaves could be owned or part owned by individuals, families and businesses that did not make use of them themselves but rented them out (like farm machinery). Some very middle class people derived direct financial benefit from slavery.
This website ( https://www.ucl.ac.uk/lbs/ ) has some nasty surprises in store. Not a single thing to be remotely proud of.
DisgruntledFerret
...Aww. I got an error when I tried to go there.
DisgruntledFerret
Oh wait no, there it goes. Thanks!
TheOneTrueZippy8
Occasionally the entire site goes away then comes back then falls over. I have no idea why.
Excellent research, awful website (at times).
Superstzday
just because your ancestors did some stupid fucking bullshit doesn't mean that those traditions are worth holding on to. be better than the last generation.
DarkRedCape
It has nothing to do with that, it never does. These people are just racists, and they think flying that flag gives their racism some legitimacy, and it does, just not in the way they think it does. But this guy is a good example of being too stupid to realise that.
CerisCinderwolf
Tradition is simply a way for the dead to control the living.
YouRadicalizedMe
Traditions are an idiot thing"
capnadorable
Pokémon Go has more history than the confederacy. Every 5 year old has more history than the confederacy. Your fucking “heritage” lmao give me a fucking break.
GigglingWordBearer
Goatse had a longer run than the confederacy did.
dafrey
The Pokemon Go argument is going to be my new favorite, love this
L4dead2
Love the Pokémon go usage
Snooj
And some of us are still legitimately playing Pokémon Go, unlike these traitor cosplayers waving their defeatist banners of a failed nation.
Purrmageddon
I stopped with that avatar update. ;l
IndigoThursday
I kinda miss Pokémon go. Do people still play. Could I just start it again from the beginning?
Snooj
Yes and yes. I stopped for about a year after hitting level 40 and my account didn't go anywhere so if you know your credentials it's probably still waiting for you.
teratrain
yep! there's still a pretty active playerbase and the game is actively getting updates and events. i live in a town of ~31k people and we have a regular group with weekly raid nights and get-togethers for events. our group ranges from people who have played since 2016, to on-and-off players like myself, to folks who have only started recently, so there's no problem with starting now!
filiuspelei
Well this is the thing: his family probably was poor, and did fight for the flag thinking somehow that they were fighting to save their farm. But then, just as to today, they were getting duped into supporting a cause that was not in their economic interest
CyanideBreathMint
But the strong man said…
AnonOmis1000
They didn't fight for that flag because that specific flag was never used by the confederacy.
Seanspeed
For many it really didn't matter if they actually had slaves or not, slavery still represented a way for them to enshrine the superiority of white people into law and that's what they cared about. They hated the idea of black people being put on an equal level with white people as human beings. Sure, they may not own slaves, but they still got to FEEL superior to black people regardless.
murmurous
The easiest way to determine: how would they lose this farm? The north wasn't fighting a war of aggression. The southern people that were 'merely there' were not at threat of having their land sized by northern invaders. If the south lost the war, his family would just be back to being part of the US instead of the Confederacy with no change in their land status.
CallMeMcGyver
Actually they would have had a better chance without slavery, because slave holders had an unfair advantage over small farms because of virtually free labor… Same reason why today it’s very hard for small businesses to compete against big corporations that pay slave wages…
atomfixes101
You mean..that guy is stupid? And his family is stupid?
Calicious
Odd are his family didn't fight for that flag, because that was simply the flag of the 28th Virginia regiment. It only started to represent the whole confederacy in the 1900's as an overtly racist symbol. So even if his family was just fighting to save their farm, his flying that flag has nothing to do with it.
DrasticBastard
But some day if they worked hard enough they would be able to buy a slave of their own so that they wouldn’t have to work hard. /s
Enoan
I mean, paying the mob protection money is generally in your economic interest. Even if they didn't believe a scrap of it dodging the draft was a risk.
captainregular
The Confederacy is NOBODY'S "heritage." Nobody grew up in the CSA, nobody raised a family in the CSA, nobody took on their dad's business in the CSA. They didn't have time, it only lasted a hair over 4 years - 51 months. Nirvana lasted longer than the CSA, Star Trek Voyager lasted longer than the CSA. The fucking Pontiac Aztec lasted longer than the CSA. I can claim the PT Cruiser as my heritage more than the CSA, because it lasted longer, too.
CallMeMcGyver
Nice analogy in regards to claiming it was a heritage… but I’m thinking they are usually referring to the racism as the heritage… whether they realize it or not.
Buffoonery
Exactly this. Not much has changed. The same 'salt of the earth' folks think that fighting for *Rump or conservatism/nationalism is gonna save their farm or their pension or healthcare. Save their jobs from the brown hoards over-running our borders, or keep their kids from turning gay from listening to a trans-woman read to them in a library. Ignorance. It's always been about fear brought on by ignorance and hatred brought about by fear.
filiuspelei
Preach it!
CuddlyPervert
Yup. The ironic thing is, if they were poor farmers, the abolishment of slavery would have been in their best interest. It's hard to compete in a marketplace that employs slavery when you don't.
Misora
Had multiple family members fight and some die as Confederate soldiers. None owned slaves. Hell none of their parents owned slaves. They were white sharecroppers. They fought for the same reason a lot of people enlist today. They were broke 18-22 year olds who were promised a snazzy uniform and easy money and a quick turn around to a better life. The ones in power are very rarely the ones who do the dying.
thatscool22
In the civil war, rich people paid poor people to fight for them. It was the substitute law. When drafted, rich people paid for another person to take their place.
MyDragonHeartedSpirit
I appreciate this look into your family. I was a young adult who joined the military for money and stability and ended up serving in the Iraq war, and I would never consider it a moment of pride in my life. It wasn't until I years later that I fully understood what I was involved with, and how shitty it was to so many people. I cannot and will not judge a person for participating in a war no matter the side, unless they orchestrated atrocities or support them.
IAmTheBadW01f
There's no shame in having an ancestor who fought as a Confederate.
There is shame in glorifying that ancestor.
MyDragonHeartedSpirit
Fucking exactly.
LoudBirb
The vast majority of Confederate soldiers were all in on preserving slavery and the inferiority of black people. Their generals would motivate them by telling them the north wanted to take their lands and make black men their equal. The Confederacy used conscripted slaves on a massive scale for transportation and construction of military defenses. They knew. They approved. https://acwm.org/blog/myths-and-misunderstandings-slaveholding-and-confederate-soldier/
LoudBirb
Confederate propaganda was based entirely around preserving the institution of slavery and the fundamental inferiority of black people. They put it into their constitution, in all their letters of secession, and their VP gave a big, public speech about it that was publicized to the masses called the Cornerstone Speech. The average Confederate soldier might have many personal reasons for enlisting, but all of them knew (and likely the vast majority agreed with) what they were fighting for.
Misora
Oh they knew. I just don't think the poor enlisted ones cared that much. Fuck revisionist history that tries to say anything but that the Civil War was about slavery to the people in charge. The people in power cared because that was the cornerstone of their economic and political control. But even today the majority of people who enlist in the US army do so for economic stability and opportunities not because they have a driving need to spread democracy.
LoudBirb
The vast majority of Confederate soldiers were all in on preserving slavery and the inferiority of black people. Their generals would motivate them by telling them the north wanted to take their lands and make black men their equal. Most of them cared just as much as their leaders and moneyed powers did: https://acwm.org/blog/myths-and-misunderstandings-slaveholding-and-confederate-soldier/
Hexrowe
So, your family farm was poor due to the unfair competition from rich farms worked by slave labor. And now you're carrying the slavers' flag because...?
cabalin
Wellthat’s easy, because they’re stupid bigots
AeonQuasars
I really wish the interviewer could have asked that question.
SleepyHollowAppleTree
ToSisPoS
Because even then the stupid could be weaponized by the deplorable.
RecurringNightmare
because back then his family was "middle class", not slave owners, but also not slaves, there were people below them, which made them feel better about themselves despite not being at the top...now there are no slaves anymore so his poor family is lower class, which they dont like...they want the "good old times" back where everything was worse than today except they could feel better about it because others had it a lot more worse than them...and those others were black, which is a plus to them
Hexrowe
Yeah... I keep saying this, but one major thing to understand about pecking orders and social food chains is that while it's nice to be on top of one, it's ABSOLUTELY CRUCIAL to NOT be at the bottom.
Nightchime
Idiots up and down the family tree. Still traitors, though.
Jackpot7777777
My family going back for generations wasn't rich, but some day I might be. And then people like me better watch their step!
onlymostofthetime
the less fortunate get all the breaks
jj86
Critical thinking theory.
TalkingSnake
Funny thing is, if there was secession his heritage farmland would have gone up in value as the economy reacted to the dramatic increase of farm products without slave labor.
If he could talk to his actual ancestors they would tell them how shitty it was losing harvested crop value to rich immoral thieves that this tomato man glorifies.
LumpPump
idk you say that but seems his set of ancestors were the type that blah blah blahed their grudge about loosing onto their grandkids and thats why you got him spouting that bs now cause it was passed down... or they were so stubbornly proud of their bs. like idk how your grandparents talked but yeah at family reunions there was always one or two elder folks that talked like that and man i feel bad for the kids on that side of the family that had to deal with them on the regular lol...
WhyDontYouMakeMe
The south continued to be a horrible place for generations after the fall of the Confederacy, effecting all poor people. The economic structres made it so a disease called pellagra was endemic to southern states until the 50's, because it's actually a severe vitamin deficiency caused by eating extremely nutrient poor diets for 5 months or more
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pellagra
WhyDontYouMakeMe
To be clear about how hard it is to "catch" pellagra, it can be prevented by eating a meal or two a week with full servings of animal protein
TalkingSnake
Fun Fact: his family was likely forced into the CSA army after the secession, at threat of imprisonment and or more drastic commandeering of property that was already happening.
The CSA leadership were rich men who never worked a field, the soldiers sent to die were literally "dirt poor" as in they often had dirt floors inside their homes.
The largely pardoned leadership of the traitors allowed the rich to rewrite the narrative in the South, and within a generation it was glorified.
SleventyEleventy
I mean, most of them were willing participants, they feared servile insurrection, and actively fought to preserve slavery because they wanted to, not because they were forced. See soldiers diaries and the pro-union regiments raised in Confederate states.
TalkingSnake
A large percentage of the men forced into the CSA army were functionally illiterate.
The CSA took their horses and livestock. Food stores, etc. only to threaten them with imprisonment if they disobeyed. Or worse.
SleventyEleventy
Per the National Park Service: "Confederate soldiers were primarily volunteers who enlisted for a variety of reasons... whether their families owned slaves or not, many believed that two fundamental aspects of Southern society, white liberty and black slavery, were under threat by a Federal government dominated by the North."
TalkingSnake
"I'm taking your best horse and half your stored grain. Volunteer to walk to the front lines and fight for my right to own 50 slaves or we can do this the hard way."
SleventyEleventy
Look, if you want to ignore history to feel better about 200 year old racists, I can't stop you. But lost cause bullshit is just post-hoc lies made up by these racist fucks when they lost. These same 'poor conscripts who didn't believe in slavery' then just lynched freed slaves and their descendants for 100 years, so I'd say they were on board with the status quo.
candle340
Fun fact: He's still a racist piece of shit, and you can see the realization on his face after he says the quiet part out loud.
TalkingSnake
And it’s who he is choosing to be.
neverpostsoriginalcontent
It's absolutely wild how a small group of people convinced so much of the south that the civil war was NOT about slavery, but about heritage and "rights". No that doubt his family was worse off because of the confederacy and slavery - owning people was helpful only for the wealthy. The fact people are still so vested against their own interest, and really against their own heritage is absolutely tragic.
TalkingSnake
Reconstruction era South was a terrible place to live.
As much as the rich slaver cunts got away with it all, the economy of the South faltered... to this day. The poor farmers and workers were the ones paying the price for the war after it and then they were told to blame the North.
It's simple really.
TalkingSnake
Even in Jones County Mississippi, where the majority of voters were against secession, forced to secede anyway and forced at gun point to serve the CSA army but then ran back home to fight the CSA from inside the Jones County swamps the rest of the war...
Where the slaves were the primary spies supplying the Jones County Rangers with information and supplies.
Years after the war ended, a community school house was built, but then one man was told that only his white children could attend...
TalkingSnake
But his mixed kids with his second wife, a freed slave, we're not allowed to attend.
That building mysteriously burned down soon after. Newt Knight went from a living hero fighting an evil tyranny to a hated traitor for the crime of defending his own land and community, within his own lifetime.
kiwitreelady
I'm a descendant of the man sent to Jackson with the county's vote against secession. He was "persuaded" somehow to change his vote.
TalkingSnake
Let me guess. The muzzle argument worked?
LondoMollari58
The failure of Reconstruction is one of the biggest fuckups in the history of the US.
Tumescentpie
They knew what they were doing.
TalkingSnake
If I had a Time Machine I would kick Adam Johnson in the taint until he stopped moving.
mithiwithi
Andrew Johnson, possibly? (Though if I had only one shot at going back in time to kick a 19th century President in the nuts, I personally would take my shot at Andrew Jackson.)
TalkingSnake
Fucking auto correct...
Nah man, Andrew Johnson is the one who pardoned the CSA cunts. He was the butterfly that gave us this typhoon.