Considering the rewriting of American Civil War history

The rewriting of American history

I have been rewatching Ken Burns’ brilliant documentary on the American Civil War. It is so good I cannot detect any great bias. How did it go from that to tearing down Confederate statues and rewriting history?

Some things that stand out:

- Confederate leader, Robert E Lee was not a slave owner and was not even pro-slavery but joined to defend his state, Virginia. Yet now they are ripping down his statues.

- The war was NOT to emancipate the slaves but to defend the Union. In fact, until some time in 1862 runaway slaves were returned. Lincoln himself did not want particularly to emancipate the slaves

- This did not change until the North was losing badly (partially due to Gen McLennan’s incompetency),and it looked as if the Europeans might recognise the Confederacy

- It is a sign of Lincoln’s genius that he recognised this and went ahead with the Emancipation.

Unsaid by the documentary but it is my understanding that the people of the “good” North, having vanquished the “evil South” went on to commit genocide against the Native Americans.

They also went on to replace slavery with wage slavery.

The past needs to be looked at in its own terms and not through the lens of a modern American Civil War.

I received the following comments from Risteárd O'Corchrain

Indeed. The American "Civil War" was no such thing.

It was a war of secession, meaning that one part of the country simply wanted to leave and be its own nation, NOT take control of the whole... Important difference.

The war was primarily economic:

The Southern States were the economic powerhouse at the time; most of the largest ports, most agriculture and most industry.

They were being taxed heavily by the North, which was not returning / investing almost anything in the South.

And yes, it is true that Lincoln and his acolytes did not give a damn about the plight of the slaves, they only used the declaration of emancipation as a weapon of war, which worked better than they had ever expected....

….As usual, it was all about money and power, nothing more, nothing less.

Certainly not emancipation of the slaves.