How Louisiana teaches students about the Civil War

[R.P. McM]

https://twitter.com/jbenton/status/1404245820103348227

But sure, “muh Critical Race Theory” is the biggest problem right now…

I've long considered Abraham Lincoln the greatest leader in U.S. history. But lately, increasingly, I've been forced to reconsider that position. Had the Union been far more punitive towards the Confederacy, I think that at the current moment, we'd all be in a far better place.

[R.P. McM]

“Louisiana doesn’t properly teach about slavery, therefore critical race theory is good” is not an argument that logically follows.

I've long considered Abraham Lincoln the greatest leader in U.S. history. But lately, increasingly, I've been forced to reconsider that position. Had the Union been far more punitive towards the Confederacy, I think that at the current moment, we'd all be in a far better place.

I still think Lincoln’s plan would have been better. What happened in actuality was Johnson was too lenient while the Radical Republicans were too punitive (breeding resentment). It was like the worst of both worlds. The more moderate course championed by Lincoln might have been better long-term and allowed for smoother re-integration of the South into the US without either leaving them resentful for generations or letting them just get away with everything. But I guess we’ll never know.

Strong disagree. Had you been an AA individual living in the Deep South, I really doubt you would've viewed the prospect of a modicum of equality as a punitive act. It's real easy to sacrifice the liberty/dignity of others on the altar of national unity. Not your problem, evidently. Just like, going forward, it won't be my problem when Southern cities are ravaged by global warming. And you're kidding yourself if you believe that the South would've ever accepted the equality of AA's without the threat of military force. No, it's a very diseased culture, which is apparent even in the present day.

[R.P. McM]

This oversimplified and racialized view of Louisiana in the Civil War also ignores the truth of its complicated legacy. It’s important to note that prior to the civil war, New Orleans was a very wealthy city, with strong export markets for its goods, a thriving if nascent skilled professional class, and control over the extensive Mississippi River basin.

Louisiana, like many other confederate states, was not uniformly in favor of slavery, or of secession. There was furious debate, even among the creoles, whether it was healthy for the state’s economy to be dependent on exporting slave agricultural products, or whether tying the state’s wealth up in plantation slavery was a good idea.

Louisiana at that time was much unlike other southern states in that it was also home to a small, but thriving mixed race community, owing to the legacy of plaçage from French colonialism. There simply weren’t enough marriageable women from France who could bear children, so the next best option was mixed-race marriages between French men and Black women.

Funnily enough, it would be these mixed-race men and women from Louisiana who would go on to form the core of the Black middle class in the twentieth century, and provide the intellectual and political leadership to resist and ultimately overcome racial segregation.

Sure, New Orleans was the most populous Southern city on the eve of the Civil War. But you're really reaching to make this much more complicated than it actually is. How did LA's representatives vote on the issue of civil rights? It was disgraceful, right? And it continues to be disgraceful — Steve Scalise is just "David Duke without the baggage." Here's my favorite quote from William Tecumseh Sherman, then a superintendent at a LA military academy, a few years prior to the onset of the Civil War:

You people of the South don't know what you are doing. This country will be drenched in blood, and God only knows how it will end. It is all folly, madness, a crime against civilization! You people speak so lightly of war; you don't know what you're talking about. War is a terrible thing! You mistake, too, the people of the North. They are a peaceable people but an earnest people, and they will fight, too. They are not going to let this country be destroyed without a mighty effort to save it... Besides, where are your men and appliances of war to contend against them? The North can make a steam engine, locomotive, or railway car; hardly a yard of cloth or pair of shoes can you make. You are rushing into war with one of the most powerful, ingeniously mechanical, and determined people on Earth—right at your doors. You are bound to fail. Only in your spirit and determination are you prepared for war. In all else you are totally unprepared, with a bad cause to start with. At first you will make headway, but as your limited resources begin to fail, shut out from the markets of Europe as you will be, your cause will begin to wane. If your people will but stop and think, they must see in the end that you will surely fail.

Equally applicable to modern day Trump-loving traitors.