Full Forum Southeastern Poll

[Akno21]

So Dubya is from Mississippi and States is from Maryland.

And Maryland is a northern state

[Akno21]

So Dubya is from Mississippi and States is from Maryland.

And Maryland is a northern state

No it's not.

Agreed.  Maryland is certainly not a northern state, even though they've tried to convince themselves they are for a long time.

Maryland wasn't part of the confederacy and  has very differenr voting patterns than the South. I would like to hear it explained why Maryland is not northern/is the southern.

It would've been part of the CSA, but Lincoln sent in troops and busted the secession meeting up.

That was then, this is now. Now, it is much closer to being a northern state than a southern one.

[Akno21]

They are all American states so I don't see why it really matters that much.

^^^^^

"America has no North, no South, no east, no west. The compass shows directions but points straight up and down. Now we can laugh at the redicuolus nation that there ever was a North or South."
-Sam Watkins, Company H

Thanks to Ken Burn's "The Civil War" for giving me that quote. At least it applies somewhere.

Ahh, Sam Watkins, lowly soldier with more sense than any political or military leader.

I just bought the soundtrack on eBay for 1 cent.  What a great show Ken Burns put together there.  Too bad he skipped all the stuff that caused all the problems that persist today in the South (such as, say, Reconstruction).

Ken Burns 'documentary' was a joke.

Do you have any credible sources that support that, or is that just your personal view?

[Akno21]

Ken Burns 'documentary' was a joke.

Do you have any credible sources that support that, or is that just your personal view?

I think I know what States is talking about.  The part on the actual war seemed accurate (States, feel free to correct me on that), but then once the war was over, Burns gave just a bit of reflection, and then suddenly the country was merrily and instantaneously reunified.  It skipped all of Reconstruction and suddenly arrived at I think the 1935 reunion of soldiers of both sides at Gettysburg, Union and Confederate shaking hands in brotherly cordiality.  It was the post-war events, in my opinion, that caused the lingering problems in the South, not the war itself.

Yeah, that's certainly not an accurate portrayal of what happened.

Doesn't really qualify it as a joke though.

[Akno21]

It was the post-war events, in my opinion, that caused the lingering problems in the South, not the war itself.

If anything, the problems we have had occured because Reconstruction was not allowed to run its due course.  The backbone of the culture of evil had to be broken.  Unfortunately, the traitors were just given a slap on the wrist.

That seems right to me, Don.  It seems that the leaders of the Confederacy were treated leniently, but the average Southern citizen (who had been played like a pawn as much as any group of people in any American war) received the blunt of the punishment.  The sanctions against the South fell upon the very people who had already suffered when the war was brought to them, rather than those whose actions had contributed to the outbreak of war.  I agree completely with you about why Reconstruction failed the South - it was never fully implemented as designed.  The federal government's turning a blind eye to the continuing injustices against former slaves in return for the cooperation of ex-Confederate politicians was perhaps most damaging to the establishment of a stable Southern society.  Hence the continuing racial problems that seem pronounced in the South.  The perceived humiliations of the half-way Reconstruction, and not the outcome of the battles of the war, I think, have caused the lingering animosity among some Southerners toward the North.

Is there a thread in the off-topic section for discussing this kind of thing?

That's what happens when the federal government didn't have a strong leader, and instead had Johnson and Grant.

Q, I don't think this would go in the off-topic section, it would be a good fit for the history board.