Posts
The
rewriting of American history
I received the following comments from Risteárd O'Corchrain
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.
Certainly not emancipation of the slaves.
Khamenei.ir
Hassan Rouhani
