enumerated: ** “We would be wise to doubt our understanding of the two sides of the story when only one side is taught. “ **
But in reality, one is the side of historical facts, reasons & truth.
The other side is pure Lost Cause mythology, only loosely related to actual events of that time.
enumerated: ** “I’m defending the South which has been demonized for 150 years while the North has sanctified itself for all posterity with a self-serving version of the truth.” **
But nobody but nobody on Free Republic ** ever ** “demonizes”
“the South” of then or today.
All we do is correct the anti-US myths, lies & nonsense you folks frequently post.
enumerated: ** “In the industrial northern colonies, slavery was unpopular NOT due to moral superiority, but because the non-slave population needed the work and understood that slavery devalued their labor.” **
No, abolition in the North & elsewhere was first learned IN CHURCH, and accompanied great religious revivals.
Sure, many Northerners were smart enough to figure out that low cost slave labor was not in their own best economic interests — a little like today’s US workers & illegal immigrants, would not help to Make America Great Again.
But in 1860 almost 100% of Northerners understood that slavery **in the South** was a precondition for Union and so would let it be.
enumerated: ** “When slavery was abolished in the northern colonies and states, and in Europe it was often phased out in a way that did not cause loss of wealth or hardship to slave owners...
Many southern slave owners advocated and would have gladly accepted such a phase out.” **
Your first point here is true, your second utterly false.
In fact, even discussion of abolition, however slowly phased in, in most Southern states was forbidden.
Far from tolerating talk of Southern abolition, the Slave Power was constantly looking for ways to expand their Institution into new territories and occupations.
That’s what the Supreme Court’s 1857 Dred-Scott decision was all about, making it legal to take slaves ** permanently ** into any US state or territory regardless of local abolition laws.
enumerated: ** “ The point being that if we had lost the revolutionary war rather than won it, history would not depict the North on its high horse laying the blame on the south for slavery and the civil war. “ **
In fact history accurately reports that in 1776 slavery was accepted & enforced in by British law in every American colony, and most Declaration of Independence signers in 1776, North and South, owned slaves.
However, even in 1776 most Founders including Southerners like Jefferson and Washington understood slavery was morally wrong and should be abolished.
Jefferson’s famous deleted paragraph in the Declaration said as much.
In time Jefferson himself was responsible for outlawing slavery in the then Northwest Territories, and proposed abolishing slavery nationwide, to be paid for by the Federal government.
So there’s no question that most (but not all) Founders opposed British imposed slavery on moral grounds.
Yes, British Lord Balfore’s declaration offered all servants, Africans or Europeans, freedom in exchange for military service.
He did that for much the same reason as Lincoln’s Emancipation Proclamation, but Balfore’s didn’t work.
Do you know why?
Because General George Washington was ten times smarter than Jefferson Davis in the 1860s. Washington matched Balfore’s offer and by the time of Cornwallis surrender at Yorktown in 1781, our Continental Army was reported to be one quarter African-Americans.
But where George Washington was a moral & mental giant among men, Jefferson Davis was not.
enumerated: ** “In war, to the victor goes the spoils, including the exclusive right to tell only their self serving version of the story.” **
From the beginning of Free Republic Lost Causers have posted their myths, lies & venom against “the North” unrestricted except for excessive abusive language.
So by now most all of it has been posted & refuted many times, but you folks keep coming back with more of it.
And nobody here hates “the South”, most of us have family & friends there, have lived in Southern states an often visit.
We have no problems with historical flags & monuments, many in Northern towns fly those same flags.
But we won’t let you post your myths, lies & venom without standing up for real history, and so it goes.
Not sure if you were quoting someone or not. But I disagree with this:
But in 1860 almost 100% of Northerners understood that slavery **in the South** was a precondition for Union and so would let it be.
I would say that Northern politcians largely understood and accepted this. Abolotionist New England probably did not accept this on its face. This was a moral issue.