Great discussion. I really enjoyed the focus on the men as individuals and feel you described my ancestor perfectly. My G-G-Gpa was born in 1840 in MO and joined the Conf Army in 1861. He fought in many battles until he was shot and captured at the Battle of Franklin. Keep the episodes coming!
My yankee Great, Great Grandpa was in the 21st Missouri Inf. Rgt. Wounded, first day at Shiloh. His oldest brother was 22nd Virginia Inf. Rgt. ANV. A distant cousin, the 23rd Alabama, wounded at Atlanta.. This was truly, The War of Blood Relations.
A hard to find book, but well worth reading, is “The Cotton Kingdom”. It’s an edited reprint of the writings, most of which were published at the time, of Fredrick Law Olmstead. Olmstead, an agronomist by training and a writer by preference, was hired by a New York newspaper in 1859 to travel through the south and write columns on what life was like there. It was as much a foreign nation to Olmsteads readers as Europe. His wanderings on horseback accompanied by a dog and introducing himself vaguely as a “traveler” headed for Texas led to some profound observations on the American south. It WAS a different world. I’ll leave it at that. Read the book if you can. Olmstead went on become a noted landscape architect. He designed Central Park in NYC.
Do you think those young men were maybe led to believe that giving black people freedom, would somehow diminish their own standing or rights? I've wondered how the Confederacy convinced poor young men to fight a war to maintain slavery, when those men didn't own slaves themselves. I'm not sure if their ideals were as lofty as "they were destined". You're right that, that societal structure was all they knew, but couldn't they have seen a change in thinking regarding slavery and maybe tried to prevent tearing the nation apart with war? I know information didn't travel as fast then as it does now, but wouldn't they have known about something like the Fugitive Slave Law? Slaves were running away, wouldn't people know that? And they were running to somewhere and had to be returned forcibly. They knew that people in the north had a different philosophy of life or society, they thought northerners were wanting to impose that onto the south.
I think for those who didn’t own slaves, it was about not wanting to live in equal terms with black people. For the slave holders it was about continuing the exploitation, but for the other white men, it was about racism, not wanting to live with the black men as an equal. All a legacy of racism and considering those of a different color skin lesser beings… an ugly truth.
Great discussion. I really enjoyed the focus on the men as individuals and feel you described my ancestor perfectly. My G-G-Gpa was born in 1840 in MO and joined the Conf Army in 1861. He fought in many battles until he was shot and captured at the Battle of Franklin. Keep the episodes coming!
Excellent episode guys!
This episode got deep!
Very good presentation.
"History doesn't repeat, but it does rhyme.." Mark Twain
My yankee Great, Great Grandpa was in the 21st Missouri Inf. Rgt. Wounded, first day at Shiloh. His oldest brother was 22nd Virginia Inf. Rgt. ANV. A distant cousin, the 23rd Alabama, wounded at Atlanta.. This was truly, The War of Blood Relations.
A hard to find book, but well worth reading, is “The Cotton Kingdom”. It’s an edited reprint of the writings, most of which were published at the time, of Fredrick Law Olmstead.
Olmstead, an agronomist by training and a writer by preference, was hired by a New York newspaper in 1859 to travel through the south and write columns on what life was like there. It was as much a foreign nation to Olmsteads readers as Europe. His wanderings on horseback accompanied by a dog and introducing himself vaguely as a “traveler” headed for Texas led to some profound observations on the American south. It WAS a different world. I’ll leave it at that. Read the book if you can.
Olmstead went on become a noted landscape architect. He designed Central Park in NYC.
Great episode. That is one bright shirt. Did you plug in over night.
Do you think those young men were maybe led to believe that giving black people freedom, would somehow diminish their own standing or rights? I've wondered how the Confederacy convinced poor young men to fight a war to maintain slavery, when those men didn't own slaves themselves. I'm not sure if their ideals were as lofty as "they were destined". You're right that, that societal structure was all they knew, but couldn't they have seen a change in thinking regarding slavery and maybe tried to prevent tearing the nation apart with war?
I know information didn't travel as fast then as it does now, but wouldn't they have known about something like the Fugitive Slave Law? Slaves were running away, wouldn't people know that? And they were running to somewhere and had to be returned forcibly. They knew that people in the north had a different philosophy of life or society, they thought northerners were wanting to impose that onto the south.
I think for those who didn’t own slaves, it was about not wanting to live in equal terms with black people. For the slave holders it was about continuing the exploitation, but for the other white men, it was about racism, not wanting to live with the black men as an equal. All a legacy of racism and considering those of a different color skin lesser beings… an ugly truth.