Tag: civil-war

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Donald Trump was upset about the Smithsonian’s failure to talk about the good parts of slavery. There are good parts of slavery? Who knew. I am greatly interested in hearing more. I am sure he will be forthcoming with more details sometime in the future.

Trump may have had a point about the information in Smithsonian displays but it was lost when he started to talk about the good parts of slavery. Because Trump has a reputation of never apologizing and never backing down, there will be no apology which puts his supporters in the awkward position of defending Trump’s ridiculous statement when the only sane response is Trump is wrong and he never should have said something so stupid.

A good portion of the Conservative side has taken the best option available to them — they are ignoring the statement completely. Anyone who tries to defend him looks like an idiot and no one dares contradict the notoriously vengeful Trump so silence is about the best option a sane person would have.

Why Trump and Conservatives feel that American History has to always paint the country in a positive light is baffling. History is about human beings doing things. Human beings, some of the time, are going to do the wrong thing. It is inevitable. And it is a good lesson for children. Even people who do good things can sometimes believe and do terrible things. Children need to know this. How do you expect them to navigate life in this rough and tumble world if they believe Americans only do good?

Facts are facts. Slavery existed in the United States at one time. How do you explain American History without talking about it? The Civil War was all about slavery no matter how hard people try to make it about State’s Rights. This fails when looking at what people living at the time say. All the historical evidence points to slavery as the cause of the war. It wasn’t tariffs, agricultural policy, industrial policy, or any one of a million different issues that states might disagree about — it was about slavery.

Well, then, a lot of Southerners opposed slavery but they felt compelled to support their state, friends and family who did. So where exactly do you stop supporting your friends and family when they have bad ideas? I don’t really want slaves but all my friends and family have slaves so, in order that they don’t feel awkward, I am going to fight a bloody civil war so they know I really like them. These people are actually worse than the people who believed slavery was acceptable. It is the old mother’s adage if everyone was jumping off the Empire State Building, would you? Give me a break.

The Civil War is over with. It is no longer relevant to a modern discussion of civil rights. Now, I happen to disagree with this but say I give it to Trump’s defenders in this debate. The Smithsonian’s displays are about the Civil War. They are trying to explain what happened in 1860 and not how we live now. In order to understand America in the 1860’s, slavery has to be discussed and, if it is discussed honestly, the evils of slavery come up from time to time — it is unavoidable.

Some slave owners were nice to their slaves. Oh come on, really. They may have been nice people but they still believed it was OK to own people, to sell people, and to retrieve people if they ran away. That is your definition of nice? There is little evidence that this niceness was apparent to the slaves. If the slave owners were so nice why did they have to have laws returning runaway slaves? Why would anyone want to leave paradise on the plantation?

The slaves were fed and housed. Big Whoop. Prisoners are fed and housed. Hostages are fed and housed. This is basic human behavior. Nothing particularly special or nice about. If you are going to buy someone, force them to live somewhere and tell them they can’t leave — you better damn well feed and house them.

Why people try to make the South out to be the good guys in this scenario is beyond me. They were wrong about everything and I mean everything. There is nothing redeeming about the South’s position on slavery. It was wrong for them to have slaves and it was wrong for them to start a war about it. Trying to make lemonade out of this tainted basket of lemons is impossible. So, for God’s sakes, stop it.

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Donald Trump thinks that Abraham Lincoln mishandled the Civil War. He should have tried more peaceful methods to end the conflict in order to avoid avoid the 600,000 deaths the war caused.

Wow. That is just gobsmackingly arrogant and stupid even for a man who is known for being gobsmackingly arrogant and stupid.

When someone talks like this, it gives me the impression that he has thought long and hard about the Civil War and that, through his study of the war, he saw some alternate peaceful approaches that Lincoln missed in 1860. Well, Donald tell me more. Trump is, after all calling into question the actions of the most esteemed president in American History regarding the pivotal issue of his presidency — the very issue that most people think makes Lincoln great. It requires a thorough explanation of Trump’s reasoning in order to understand how Lincoln erred so badly in his decisions.

Unsurprisingly, Trump just leaves it at that — Lincoln could have done better. Which leads to a different impression of what Trump said. Mostly that he doesn’t know a God damn thing about the Civil War and has no business expressing opinions about it.

The Lincoln of 1860 was quite willing to let the South keep their slaves. He drew the line at expanding slavery to any territory wanting to join the USA. He wasn’t seen as a hardcore abolitionist and was willing to do anything — including selling out the slaves — to keep the Union together. Something that many modern historians rightfully are critical of. What more could he have done to peacefully end the conflict? Particularly after the South attacked Fort Sumter which started the war. Yes, the South started the Civil War. Not Lincoln.

The most terrifying thing about Trump is that he is both painfully ignorant and he has his finger on the button that could send nuclear missiles flying through the air. He, facing his own divided country, delights in antagonizing his political opponents to such a degree that people are talking about a new civil war. Well, if Trump wants to show how to bring peace to a divided country he now has an opportunity to show it. Let Trump heal the divisions plaguing our country now.

Trump criticizing Lincoln. I don’t know whether to laugh or cry.

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Well, the news out of Texas just keeps getting better and better. Not only must a woman give birth to a baby which is doomed to die, the state takes a deem view regarding historical information about slavery. Michelle Haas, amateur historian, believes that the Varner-Hogg plantation, a Texas state historical site, had too much information about the slaves and not enough about the slave owners. You heard me right. The slaves are getting more attention than the slave owners. The horror.

Whats more troubling is that it took only one person complaining for the Texas Historical Commission to throw in the towel. They voluntarily removed the books about the slaves because they were afraid that the Republican-controlled Legislature would be upset by her complaints. One complaint and the Commission gives in. So much for Don’t Mess with Texas.

It begs the question what books about plantation owners are acceptable to Haas? Gone With the Wind?What happens when someone complains about Scarlett O’Hara and Rhett Butler? Are they going to remove it as well? At this point, you might as well close down the store completely because everything is offensive.

 Which is the point after all. This isn’t just about protecting children either, this is about keeping information from adults too. One of the books removed was Alex Haley’s classic history of his family’s experience of slavery. It’s appearance on the bookshelves is there to remind people that there were also slaves at the Varner-Hogg plantation and that plantations needed a large work force of unpaid labor in order to function. What exactly is the problem with discussing slavery? It existed at the Varner-Hogg plantation. Knowing about slavery would help a modern audience understand plantation life. I think most adults can handle this information.

And why do I need to know more about the owners? Of all the plantation residents, their place in the hierarchy of the plantation can be understood by the dimmest kindergartner. They collected the paycheck while the slaves did all of the work. What else did they really do? Give parties, run for the state legislature? You can remove the owners from the story and still get a pretty good idea of what happened on a plantation. On the other hand, you can’t remove the slaves which might also explain why there is more information about the slaves. But, by all means, tell me more about the owners.

And, while you are at it, please spare me the heart warming stories about how well they treated their slaves. It is irrelevant and frankly unbelievable. Owning a person, by its very nature, is bad treatment. Knowing any more about them, can only give people a worse opinion. Now if I can hear about why they thought they had the right to own slaves? Or why Africans were the people they were willing to enslave, I am all ears.

Also don’t tell me that slavery was a worldwide problem and that lots of people had slaves at the time. This isn’t exactly true particularly in European countries. Most of Europe had already outlawed slavery by this time and there were a lot of Americans opposed to slavery at that time so it wasn’t a universal belief. These slave owners clung to an outdated concept of how to treat their fellow human being. This is precisely what the Civil War was about. The slave owners, in case Haas’ throwing sand in your eyes has blinded you to the fact, were on the wrong side of that war.