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In some ways it was probably too "enlightened". Far too little was done to help the newly freed slaves and far too much was done to coddle their former owners.

In some ways it was probably too "enlightened". Far too little was done to help the newly freed slaves and far too much was done to coddle their former owners. The "forty acres and a mule" promise was abandoned almost immediately and the freed slaves received no compensation whatsoever for their years of work, leading directly to the astronomical poverty rates that persist to the present day. The right to vote for the former slaves lasted barely more than a decade before the southern states started to disenfranchise them. The first two black senators were elected within a decade of the end of the Civil War. The third wasn't elected until more than a century after it ended.

DoreenMichele 9y ago
In some ways it was probably too "enlightened". I would call that not enlightened enough. Real progress is quite hard. A lot of discussions about ideals fail to recognize that there are pragmatic limits. Any mention of pragmatic limits is attacked as an excuse for continued bad behavior. As a current example, I am not for UBI. I don't think it really works in practical terms. It sounds like a nice ideal, but when you dig into the details, I think it simply doesn't work. It is really, really common for new initiatives to wind up falling far short of their stated goals. It would be nice if the North had done more for the freed slaves. But I don't think that failure really suggests that it would have been better if the handling of the end of the Civil War had sowed the seeds of the next American civil war. I can't say that I really believe that Black Americans would be better off if the country were locked in a vicious cycle of civil wars. I am finding myself deeply disturbed by the things I am learning here lately about the history of how Blacks have been treated. I am newly off the street and back in housing and I am seriously medically handicapped, so there is significant limits on what I, personally, can do about anything beyond just coping with my own survival. But perhaps my upset over these injustices will stay with me and perhaps that will lead to something constructive happening, at some point. I have a tendency to try to light one small candle rather than the curse the darkness. Although it seems to have so far failed to establish any kind of reputation of a sort where I can use it for purposes of being a resume or making money or having serious influence, I have a track record of making a difference. Though a tree falls and makes no sound, still, it falls.

DoreenMichele 9y ago

In some ways it was probably too "enlightened". I would call that not enlightened enough. Real progress is quite hard. A lot of discussions about ideals fail to recognize that there are pragmatic limits. Any mention of pragmatic limits is attacked as an excuse for continued bad behavior. As a current example, I am not for UBI. I don't think it really works in practical terms. It sounds like a nice ideal, but when you dig into the details, I think it simply doesn't work. It is really, really common for new initiatives to wind up falling far short of their stated goals. It would be nice if the North had done more for the freed slaves. But I don't think that failure really suggests that it would have been better if the handling of the end of the Civil War had sowed the seeds of the next American civil war. I can't say that I really believe that Black Americans would be better off if the country were locked in a vicious cycle of civil wars. I am finding myself deeply disturbed by the things I am learning here lately about the history of how Blacks have been treated. I am newly off the street and back in housing and I am seriously medically handicapped, so there is significant limits on what I, personally, can do about anything beyond just coping with my own survival. But perhaps my upset over these injustices will stay with me and perhaps that will lead to something constructive happening, at some point. I have a tendency to try to light one small candle rather than the curse the darkness. Although it seems to have so far failed to establish any kind of reputation of a sort where I can use it for purposes of being a resume or making money or having serious influence, I have a track record of making a difference. Though a tree falls and makes no sound, still, it falls.