Worthwhile Debunking of Lost Cause Myth

[bobabode]

Originally Posted by icenine

I have run into these people more than once. Makes me ill.

I just read an essay by Richard Hofstadter which suggests that Lincoln's consistent opposition to the expansion of slavery into the new states was the telegraphing philosophy that caused the South to secede because of his election in 1860. The Republicans also used the fear that if not destroyed slavery could indeed seep into the Northern states and hurt wages of free white labor, even going so far as to suggest whites could become slaves if the institution was not checked. In this manner people in the North who were not abolitionists could be convinced to support the war against the South on selfish economic grounds rather than on the idea that slavery itself was morally wrong in and of itself.

The issue was slavery.

period. Full stop.

A lot of southern veterans, aka Johnny Rebs, settled here in Orange, Riverside, San Berdoo and San Diego counties after the war. You can still run into echoes of their ways now and then. I call them the 'Hills Have Eyes' folk.