I tell them that there are three causes of the Civil War:
The first cause is slavery.
The second cause is slavery.
And the third cause is slavery.
The Civil War was started because of slavery, period.
Was it about other things?
Yes.
Would it have happened if it
weren’t for the slavery part?
No.
It wasn’t about states’ rights.
Read this —
the Confederate states, when they seceded,
it was about preserving slavery.
How can you not say it’s slavery?
I think people get so hung up on the morality of slavery
that may not have necessarily been the primary cause.
The existence of slavery as an economic tool in the South
was a primary cause of the Civil War.
The North wasn’t the pious North,
and the South wasn’t the evil South.
The North benefited from slavery every much,
every bit as much as the South did.
Taking slaves away from the South
was basically taking most of their wealth.
Reconstruction was a time period
in which the federal government kept a very close
eye on the South.
And as a result, you do see some successes
within the African-American community.
You see Blacks are holding seats in Congress.
You see a surge in voting rights.
However, that does come to a screeching halt.
There’s going to be a deal made
and it’s called the Compromise of 1877.
The Republicans are going to make a deal
to keep the presidency.
The military is going to be taken out of the South.
And from 1877 until 1940s, 1950s, 1960s,
the South is going to be dominated by segregation.
That was the chance for this country to get it right.
Yeah, could have.
But we didn’t.
What actually happened,
we’re still recovering from right now.
What actually happened was 100 years of
institutionalized racism.
I want them to understand that Reconstruction still
affects us today.
I do not say,
the Reconstruction,
we didn’t get it right.
I present all of this evidence to them.
Nine times out of 10, they’re going
to come to that conclusion.
