A harsher but more productive Reconstruction might help. Particularly if they, as the song suggests, hang Jeff Davis from a sour apple tree. The traitors are burned into the popular memory much more than OTL
A harsher but more productive Reconstruction might help. Particularly if they, as the song suggests, hang Jeff Davis from a sour apple tree. The traitors are burned into the popular memory much more than OTL
Honestly? Tune up the economy faster. Mass poverty and slow development feed the hankering for "old times" like nothing else.
Im not american and thus im not sure I understand this matters rightly. However to me it seems that those who call for a stronger reconstruction think that the Confederacy was all about slavery and keeping the slaves. And for some rich people and much of the elit it certainly was. However the majority of the people who served as soldiers of the confederacy was not a rich slave owner. They felt different enough from the northerners and thought of themselfs as a different people - enough so to fight a long and bloody war to gain their independence. Their leaders were slavers and thats true but without popular support they couldnt have fought for years. And I dont believe - though I cant prove - that they fought so the rich can keep their slaves. I dont say that the common white man of the south werent racist or anything. But I seriously doubt that they, who never had slaves were thinking back on the "good old days" because the rich than had slaves.
This right here. The "Lost Cause" myth was created in a number of books written after the war. Many of these books glorified Lee. If Lee was to speak and write more publicly, maybe write some memoirs, along with other ex-Confederates denouncing the cause and advocating acceptance of the result, this would have a massive effect on public opinion.1) Get Confederates who were anti lost cause, like Longstreet, E. Porter Alexander, eventually Forrest (at end his life he was making speeches on behalf of black civil rights) to speak out faster or sooner before their names were blackened by lost cause mythology advocates like Early and Gordon. Most of all, have Lee speak out before he dies.
Ugh.
The Confederacy was indeed all about slavery and keeping the slaves. Check out the various secession ordinances: they make it very clear what the secession was about. As for the soldiers themselves - doesn't really matter what their opinions were. A WWII German soldier who doesn't want to exterminate the Jewish people is still fighting for a regime that wants to exterminate all Jewish people.
No, he is not. He is fighting for his homeland. That said homeland is led by a bunch of evil lunatics that distorted it to be the most evil country in history doesnt change the fact for him that its his homeland - even if he isnt a nazi.
And back to the confederacy: the soldiers were fighting for their home and independence. The secession ordinances etc were drawn up by the elit who really cared about slavery. But if it was all about slavery why were the ordinary joe's of the south without any slaves fighting in the war?
Im not american and thus im not sure I understand this matters rightly. However to me it seems that those who call for a stronger reconstruction think that the Confederacy was all about slavery and keeping the slaves. And for some rich people and much of the elit it certainly was. However the majority of the people who served as soldiers of the confederacy was not a rich slave owner. They felt different enough from the northerners and thought of themselfs as a different people - enough so to fight a long and bloody war to gain their independence. Their leaders were slavers and thats true but without popular support they couldnt have fought for years. And I dont believe - though I cant prove - that they fought so the rich can keep their slaves. I dont say that the common white man of the south werent racist or anything. But I seriously doubt that they, who never had slaves were thinking back on the "good old days" because the rich than had slaves.
Oh should of mentioned this earlier, it would probably help if Birth of a Nation and Gone With the Wind were never made.
I know, I have examples higher, but these films played a major role in it's continuance and expansion. These films don't just glorify the Confederacy for the South, but they do so for the entire country and as a result play a major role in legitimizing the Lost Cause in the eyes of white America.The work to prevent lost cause mythology needed to be done in the 1860s and 70s. These were the fruits rather than the symptoms.