[nicollo]

With Lincoln dead there was no one to hold the northern fire breathers in line and the rape of the south became policy.

Historian Eric Foner and his fellow marxists claim that Reconstruction failed because of the removal of Northern troops following the compromise of 1877.

On the contrary, Reconstruction failed because it went too hard, too fast. It had already failed well before 1877. So, sorry, Frederick Douglas, sorry Foner, but the time wasn't right for imposition of racial equality, which only delayed it for another 100 years.

I don't see any good scenario for the freed slaves in the South, but forcing political equality did more harm than good -- and led to the Northern Jim Crow. Coercion always yields less conversion than persuasion. It may work for a while, but coercion is never sustainable.

[jmacusa]

If the South had won the war would it have ended slavery?

[oldvirginian]

“Coercion always yields less conversion than persuasion. It may work for a while, but coercion is never sustainable.”

I agree completely.

Lincoln’s plan, the gentle treatment of the southern states and the removal of former slaves to African or Caribbean locations was, IMVHO, the option with the greatest chance of success at that time.

Barring the removal of the former slaves from the scene entirely, a two tiered society would have been preferable to the forced “equality” we endured for the next hundred years.