If the South has been forced to give everything up after the war, I don’t know if it would have been any better as far as if rich Northerners actually would have just bled off the best spoils of war and still left the South impoverished
Except that was not what the progressive Republicans of the Union were trying to do. Not to say there wouldn’t have been profiteering, but I don’t think it would have been government policy.
The unrepentant leaders of the Confederacy should have all been executed as the traitors they were, or at least stripped of their wealth. If the slave owners who started the war had been punished the way they should have been, their wealth and land would have been used to raise up poor southerners: both free white southerners and former slaves.
However, while Andrew Johnson did not side with the secessionists, he was an ally of the South and was unwilling to truly try to undo the evil slavery had caused.
I believe if Lincoln had not been assassinate, the South would have ended up with a much more equitable society. As it is, we still live with the curse of the devil’s bargain that the founding fathers made.
While it wouldn’t have been policy, with the spoils system still remaining, plus what all rich people get away with at any point in history, I feel there still would have been some choice bits taken for the North, but if it was given to all now free Southerners, I would hope civil rights and racial equality would be decades ahead of where we are now.
The only counterpoint is that while Germany was punished pretty hard after 2 wars, they are still more far right than I think many would hope in even less time than we are now from the US Civil War…
Except that was not what the progressive Republicans of the Union were trying to do. Not to say there wouldn’t have been profiteering, but I don’t think it would have been government policy.
The unrepentant leaders of the Confederacy should have all been executed as the traitors they were, or at least stripped of their wealth. If the slave owners who started the war had been punished the way they should have been, their wealth and land would have been used to raise up poor southerners: both free white southerners and former slaves.
However, while Andrew Johnson did not side with the secessionists, he was an ally of the South and was unwilling to truly try to undo the evil slavery had caused.
I believe if Lincoln had not been assassinate, the South would have ended up with a much more equitable society. As it is, we still live with the curse of the devil’s bargain that the founding fathers made.
Agree with you wholeheartedly!
While it wouldn’t have been policy, with the spoils system still remaining, plus what all rich people get away with at any point in history, I feel there still would have been some choice bits taken for the North, but if it was given to all now free Southerners, I would hope civil rights and racial equality would be decades ahead of where we are now.
The only counterpoint is that while Germany was punished pretty hard after 2 wars, they are still more far right than I think many would hope in even less time than we are now from the US Civil War…