*RU-vid demonetized this* for over a year, so please consider buying some merch: teespring.com/stores/the-cynical-historian Or donating to my Patreon: www.patreon.com/CynicalHistorian See following comment for corrections and citations, but first, here are some related videos to check out: 1:00 - What was the Cause of the Civil War? ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-Mu9-5n0vpGs.html 1:00 - 10 Common Slavery Myths: ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-R1FO9MqWugY.html 1:00 - 12 Annoyances for Historians: ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-4J6IPhEkYmo.html 1:00 - Woodrow Wilson: ru-vid.com/group/PLjnwpaclU4wXmCcEx0vfIim_jFMkgtLmS 6:25 - 12 Years a Slave: ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-9JRSMPnbOd4.html 6:35, 7:20 - Birth of a Nation (2016): ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-CHVDfAMKuMg.html 11:50 - Atun-Shei Films, Checkmate Lincolnites! ru-vid.com/group/PLwCiRao53J1y_gqJJOH6Rcgpb-vaW9wF0 20:50 - Leopold von Ranke: ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-CfXW37GfnEE.html 21:20 - Frederick Jackson Turner, the Frontier Thesis: ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-oa5M0B7sb5U.html 23:05 - WILSOOOON! ru-vid.com/group/PLjnwpaclU4wXmCcEx0vfIim_jFMkgtLmS 23:30 - Birth of a Nation (1915): ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-zzsvOBjRXew.html 24:10 - Vigilantism etymology: ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-RfceCvtEMJ4.html 24:50 - Frederick Jackson Turner, the Frontier Thesis: ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-oa5M0B7sb5U.html 27:40 - Rise of the New Left: ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-fLxPUcZKFuY.html 28:15 - Orthodoxy, Revisionism, and Post-revisionism: ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-xQGs3eYxGRw.html 30:10 - When the Western Genre Perished: ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-x6zD1sjnClM.html
*errata* I mispronounced _tenet_ as _tenant_ a few times 15:52 - Memphis Riots of 1866 not 68 (thx deathdog1392) --a few people have complained about what I said about the 1619 Project. Here is a post explaining what those complaints are ignoring: www.reddit.com/r/CynicalHistory/comments/gdoe1h/heres_the_thing_with_the_1619_project/
*Bibliography* Douglas Blackmon, _Slavery by Another Name: The Re-Enslavement of Black Americans from the Civil War to World War II_ (New York: Anchor Books, 2008). amzn.to/2zWOT64 William J. Cooper, _We Have the War Upon Us: The Onset of the Civil War, November 1860 - April 1861_ (New York: Vintage Books, 2011). amzn.to/2T8tIFP David Davis, _Inhuman Bondage: The Rise and Fall of Slavery in the New World_ (Oxford, UK: Oxford University Press, 2006). amzn.to/2KRoJpM Eric Foner, _Reconstruction: America’s Unfinished Revolution, 1863-1877,_ new ed. (1988; New York: Perennial Classics, 2002). amzn.to/34lFOhq Gary Gallagher and Alan T. Nolan, _The Myth of the Lost Cause and Civil War History_ (Bloomington, Ind.: Indiana University Press, 2000): ebook. amzn.to/2A7nxKy Stanley Harrold, _Border War: Fighting over Slavery before the Civil War_ (Chapel Hill: The University of North Carolina Press, 2010). amzn.to/2xbEKSp David Oshinsky, _Worse than Slavery: Parchman Farm and the Ordeal of Jim Crow Justice_ (New York: Free Press Paperbacks, 1997). amzn.to/2udhA8Q Elaine Frantz Parsons, _Ku-Klux: The Birth of the Klan during Reconstruction_ (Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 2015). amzn.to/2uSkmov ed. David Prior, _Reconstruction in a Globalizing World_ (New York: Fordham University Press, 2018), 121-144. amzn.to/2ztpwGK David M. Potter, _The Impending Crisis: America Before the Civil War, 1848-1861,_ Reprint (1976; New York: Harper Perennial, 2011). amzn.to/3aeYy5q Heather Richardson, “Reconstruction and the Nation,” in _A Companion to the Civil War and Reconstruction,_ edited by Lacy K. Ford (New York: Wiley-Blackwell, 2011), ebook, 540-582/924. Charles Royster, _The Destructive War: William Tecumseh Sherman, Stonewall Jackson, and the Americans,_ New Ed. (1991; New York: Vintage Civil War Library, 1993). amzn.to/39mL6wb Margaret M. Storey, “The Military and Reconstruction, 1862-77,” in _A Companion to American Military History, Volume II,_ edited by James C. Bradford (New York: Wiley-Blackwell, 2010), 640-649. eds. Joan Waugh and Gary W. Gallagher, _Wars Within a War: Controversy and Conflict Over the American Civil War_ (Chapel Hill: The University of North Carolina Press, 2009). amzn.to/2UO7biu _The War of the Rebellion: A compilation of the Official Records of the Union and Confederate Armies_ (Washington, DC: Government Printing Office, 1882).
@@lilboyblue3000 Don't buy that argument. The Corwin Amendment was a proposed amendment to the Constitution designed by Northern lawmakers as a last ditch compromise to avoid war. Basically, if it had been ratified, it would have indefinitely prohibited the federal government from legally interfering with the practice of slavery in the states *where it existed at the time* (remember that, it's important). The South almost uniformly rejected the amendment and it was not ratified. So the Lost Cause line is "If the war was really about slavery, why didn't the South just take the deal?" This is highly misleading. Southern states seceded not just to preserve slavery, *but to expand it* to the territories. That had been their aim for decades. They feared that if new slave states were not admitted to the Union, they would be overwhelmed in government by an huge Republican majority. The Corwin Amendment wasn't the North folding to Southern demands. It was one last attempt at a compromise before the shit really hit the fan, and it directly pertained to the primary reason for secession - slavery.
@@CynicalHistorian The revolutionary Karl Marx observed, “The new world has never achieved a greater triumph than by this demonstration that, given its social and political organisation, ordinary people can achieve feats which only the heroes could achieve in the old world.”
Fun fact: The various declarations of secession talked so much about slavery that they utterly exhausted the South's stockpile of the word "slavery" to the point where their history schoolbooks have to strictly ration it to this day.
While anti-slavery Lincoln was lukewarn on emancipation. The fact 7 of the 11 Confederate States seceded before he was inaugurated should be a sign. Not to mention it was the CSA who shot at Fort Sumter first should be another sign at who was the aggressor.
@@SouthernGentleman Grant's wife inherited two slaves from her slave owning family and he freed them. The US Constitution only had a provision to ban import of new slaves while the Confederate Constitution had an entire article on slavery including no restrictions on the right to own slaves and if the CSA got new territory slavery would be legal there.
@@SEAZNDragon Slavery also was not a profitable business. Food, clothing and Shelter for Slaves that complied with the few rules there were cost so much, that the only part of a slaveholding plantation in any size but the largest ones, that brought profits was raising new slaves to sell on the market. Which meant the slaveholders NEEDED slavery to expand to new states that got admitted tot he union or they would be broke in one or two generations. THAT was what drove them off. They hoped once the CSA was established they either could take over much of the unorganized West of the USA too and establish slavery to save them for another 50 years or they might even make a try at Mexico to do the same there. That it would run into an economical wall anyway, just a few years later seems to never have passed their minds. On the other hand that also means that once the slaves were freed most only were able to get employed to starvation wages on their former plantations now as hired labor... which is the part of Cypher's "myth" where it goes uncomfortably to a good number of slaves DID have it better before they were freed as nobody saw a need to pay them well enough to have a similar or better standing than before. It caused the large scale resettlement to the north in areas like Chicago or Detroit, New York or Washington that created the mostly black cities there that now are held up as symbols for mismanaged cities (ignoring the manifold reasons for that, reducing it in a racist way to "it's only the skincolor"). But many of the landowners that now had lost their slaves had not much of a chance as they did not have money to pay better either. A lot of slave owners were anything but stinking rich themselves and as i wrote before, the only part really throwing off profits for most slave businesses was selling "more" slaves, where should it therefore come from when they now didn't even have slaves to sell?
@@dannyray3955 No it was not. The South fired first. The South left the union because they wanted to preserve slavery. You are either intentionally dishonest or brainwashed.
Speaking as a southerner with multiple ancestors who fought for the Confederacy, I can tell you how alluring the Lost Cause myth is. We southerners are a fiercely proud people, and it's far easier to bury your head in the sand and tell yourself that actually the Confederacy was cool than it is to accept that your ancestors fought for something monstrous, both during the war and during the Jim Crow era. This is especially true when so much of the Southern identity is tangled up in the Civil War and slavery. I fervently hope that we can start to accept the past, and in so doing let go of it and focus on who we want to be in the future.
@@pantsedjuniorhayseed4816 Freedom: The slaver army that seceded after the democratic election of an anti-slavery president... fighting for freedom? What a joke. Honor: Many of the soldiers of the slaver army renounced their oaths to the Constitution, and attacked United States soldiers. And they did this to enslave black people forever. Their dishonor is eternal. That's why their monuments are being taken down, and will continue to be. God: The only religion under attack, was their worship of an oppressive socioeconomic hierarchy.
@@pantsedjuniorhayseed4816 that's what every soldier would like to think they fight for, never admitting it's for money, oppression or because they've been brainwashed
As someone who grew up in the north till around 11 years old. Who then moved to Georgia to finish out high school, i was amazed at how the south taught the civil war. They consistently taught it as state rights (would not go into detail about it). I question my teacher at the time who said that slavery was of course part of it but that it was mostly about these state rights. This was a stark contrast to how the north taught me about the civil war, who said it was about slavery. I am currently 17 years old. It wasn't until this year when my Ap us history teacher who dismissed this myth of it being about state rights by asking "state rights over what?". It's incredibly interesting to me in how the south teaches it completely different.
If you ever look at the forms of government in the traitor states, they were universally far more injurious of states rights than existed under the US Constitution. For example the confederate constitution proclaimed slavery a permanent institution and severely limited individual states' tarriff and tax gatering rights. And most of the flashpoints leading up to the civil war was southerners using the Federal Government to deny states rights to protect slavery.
Yeah, in the US you still have the South, which is kinda patriotic, even nationalist, and the other states with their culturmarxist, farliberal madness
Putting up statues and defaming them is tradition in Europe. It's not homey unless someone has hacked off bits or tried to plaster over them. I never hear any americans defending statues of Stalin.
@@alanmcentee3035 They are not Stalin's or Lenin's subjects at that point. Stalin, Lenin and obscure guys like Feliks have been dead for decades by that time in the late 80's. But the people that commission new Lenin statues are there here and now, sending the secret police to monitor people for listening to antisocial capitalist music.
As a friend once sayed to plato: Speak clearly plato. do not dance around the issue and awnser the question your self for once. Proof you truely are the most wice of greece. -plato"s republic (Not english, sorry for grammer)
It’s unfortunate that America follows the Japanese “it didn’t happen” or “not our fault” approach to dark history instead of the German “it happened, we aren’t proud of it but we will teach it” approach.
It's truly bizarre, I've been to Japan several times and it seems there's a huge historical gap between the Ido Restoration and the atomic bombs. Japan's inability to acknowledge war crimes is still a huge issue in Asia and the Pacific.
In the Northwest it's fully tought however I can say the entire Dixie Culter is shown as a vile thing that must be corrected. The South here is often seen as Traitors to Liberty.
Yeah, it really does depend on who taught you as you were growing up, and whether or not you hold on to your beliefs. It's gotten to the point where certain people have practically deified the Confederacy. What can you say victim mentality may be pathetic, but if used correctly you can manipulate people to agree with you.
As someone who grew up in both of the Carolinas, my favorite response to all those who claimed “the Civil War was really about states rights” was always: “Yes, you’re right, it was absolutely about the Confederate State’s right to own slaves.”
The Civil War was fought over slavery, yes, that part cannot be denied. But we have to also remember that it wasn't just about the South wanting to keep slaves. The main ideology for the South wasn't necessarily about keeping slaves, but rather expanding slavery to new territories. The reason why we have the Lost Cause Myth is because when the South lost the Civil War they desperately needed to work on their image. So they told the narrative that the Civil War was about State's Rights to keep it vague. After the Civil War their one true objective was to change everyone's mind on what the Civil War was fought over, to make themselves look like the victims to a tyrannical government threatening their rights.
@@ZairokPhoen That states' rights argument is the same kind of nonsense as neo nazis use when they want to justify WW2 as Germany's "legitimate defense" against communism. What other "state right" than slavery was ever in question?!
I really appreciate and respect the notion of "It's important to understand something even if you dislike it and it's bad, because you need to understand a thing if you want to effectively fight it." Dismissing things doesn't help anyone. Thanks for making this.
I feel like that's something that people need to understand with the Founding Fathers cuz I'm seeing too many people take the fact that most of them were slave owners and running with it, all while at the same time refusing to look at anything else about them.
It seems like nuance is a lost art these days. People are unwilling to acknowledge any truth may exist in a view they disagree with. In my experience, once you get to a moderate level of complexity, very few things are more than 70% true, nor less than 20% true. If you agree with a position less than 100% many will consider you an opponent. I haven't seen much of the 1619 project but many things about slavery I've read seem to think they need to continuously restate that it was a bad thing. Like anyone who didn't know that would be reading that particular source.
I disagree with your stance on leaving these monuments where they are. They are in positions of veneration, when they don't deserve that. Put them in a museum to be studied, not in the town square
I agree. Statues are not how we record and remember history, they're how we venerate and glorify pieces of it. You don't see statues of Hitler in Germany after all...
@@rjtheripper931 in actuality they were put there to say F you to black people specifically. When you say, “people of color” it erases that basic fact. Thus, it denies black people their suffering. Also, considering blacks were called “coloreds” at one point as a derogatory term, most of us don’t like to refer to ourselves as such.
That's precisely what i've been saying for months. I'm unfortunately getting the short end of the stick tho and am finding a lot of people who want the statues to be destroyed :/.
@@ragingshibe Why is that a problem? These statues are celebrating people who killed hundreds of thousands of Americans in an attempt to preserve Slavery. Then, a large majority of the statues were erected for the purpose of intimidating Black residents and inciting racial ideologies and violence. We dont see Germany erecting statues of Hitler and Nazis, so why are Americans so proud about erecting statues of literally treasonous racists who killed Americans?
I think in particular for me, I never really bought into that "Southerners didn't fight for slavery, they fought for their state" sort of idea. While I'm not going to claim it wasn't true for some... the vast majority of Confederate writings I've seen, from personal letters, journals, newspapers, etc. Have all made it clear that yes, it was about Slavery. That they knew it was slavery. That even those who didn't have slaves still fought for the idea of "Racial Truth" and slavery. I think it's kind of a funny thing. Where often the justification is framed up as "70% of soldiers didn't even own slaves. Thus they couldn't fight to support slavery!". As if we can't just look out into our own world right now and find people backing political ideas and movements despite not having a dog in that particular fight personally. Or even ones that are seemingly contradictory to their own situation and interests.
I think the best way to put into words would be that Confederate politicians, land owners, or more wealthy individuals wanted to break away from the union because of slavery(I mean they literally said as much in their documents of succession). Poor southerns most likely did fight for honor, respect, or were forced to fight due to the drafts in the later years of the war. But whatever reason they told themselves I think they all knew what it was about. That’s why deserters became so common in the later parts of the war because those poor southerns who didn’t have slaves saw this just isn’t worth it. I honestly think the saying or term “States rights” has only come up in the last 50 or so years because people wanted to convince themselves with this romantic idea of the lost cause while also not being a flat out racist.
RESEARCH the shipping Companies archived records . Research the Statez and Counties plat maps and property tax records. Research individual States Legislatures Laws. Research original Civil War Statistics. Only 8% who fought for the South Owned SLAVES. 8%
@@Aviator-Chicken The USA is a Constitutional REPUBLIC! that REQUIRES 100% of the States Representatives participation., in the "Law making PROCESS." And for a BILL to become LAW 63% of that 100% States,Representatives Participating have to VOTE the SAME WAY. Whereas, Abraham Lincoln and his RADICAL Republican Northern States Representatives were going by a "Democracy" with a Quorum, of whomever was present a d doing a MAJORITY VOTE... of 51%. Fully knowing the Northern States would always hold the MAJORITY. This DENIED the Southern States Representatives, that would always be the MINORITY, a VOTE, a VOICE in their own GOVERNMENT. "STATES RIGHTS!"
@@savanahmclary4465 I'm from New England and the Civil War is a tremendous study. The Historian Fotte Jr. wrote extensively on South and the War - One work is the Three Volume History. As for a single work - Battle Cry For Freedom by McPherson is great. I believe that slavery became an important factor for specific crops produced in the Americas & USA. There is no dispute that under 10% of Southerners owned Slaves. McPherson titled his book over Freedom. The States from the South wanted Freedom from Northern Meddling and the North desired the Freedom to Dominate the South. The People enslaved wanted Freedom. Compromise worked for the formation of the United States of America with the idea and hope that Slavery would eventually dissolve by itself. The invention of the Cotton Gin changed that Idea. Many Issues arise over the Cause of the Civil War. One was we were a Nation divided by Freedom of Ideology and Choice. It all came down to Money. Nothing has changed. We, as Americans continue to be Divided. An interesting PBS Documentary comes to mind about a family from Bristol, Connecticut. I can't remember if there is a book. The Southern States provided Tobacco, Rice and Cotton for the world. Sugar from the Islands. Indentured Servitude was eventually replaced by Slavery. Initially many slaves were freed after an "Indenture Time". This morphed into Racism. Most transportation via the maritime ships for slaves and transportation of Southern Goods were controlled by the North. Not completely. Industry and distribution involved in these Goods was controlled by the North. The Triangular Trade Route created tremendous wealth. America became a prosperous mecca for Immigration, opportunity and Expansion. Bristol, Connecticut had a monopoly on the Slave Ships and One Family dominated with 10% (+) of the entire fleet. One female descendent did research into her families hidden past. The monies accumulated by transportation, ship building and manufacturing surrounding her Family & Slavery influenced the development and creation of Insurance (Shipping), Construction, Finance (Investing) and the Elite ('Aristocrats') in the North. Politics. The consequent influence and wealth continued to the present in her current situation and that of her family. She learned much in the Research. Meanwhile, the well to do, White Northerners who became Abolitionists allowed African Americans, for the most part, a free and subservient place into the society. Now "Free States" they deplored Southern Plantations & Ideology based upon Slavery. Northerners forget that the original Land Grants by the Crown of England given in the North were called "Plantations". Indentured Servants & Slaves helped the "Good Christians" of New England to create commerce & Industry to rival Europe. They would Smoke or sniff Tobacco, Purchase Molasses and Sugar from the Caribbean, Enjoy sweetened Coffee, Tea and Pastries, discussing their Good Fortune and may even sip some Rum while wearing the latest fashions made of Cotton. Transportation, Manufacturing, Middlemen, Finances and Investing - the North. The Blame for the Civil War is shared by the Nation. Research is the key and I constantly seek more knowledge. I don't know everything. Thank you - Triggered this Thought.
My ex partner a former History Professor had as the final question of the final exam: "What was the cause of the Civil War? It was an essay question. You could answer it any way you like but if you did not mention slavery as the cause or one of the causes, you failed the whole class, no questions asked.
Even Google caves to the Disgusting whine of white conservative grievance. I say we remove food stamps from all red states and let hunger force them to doing their own damned labor! That will fix their evil
They'll demonitize if it's anti-corporate of risks pissing off right wingers. Anyone who even has the faintest appearance of being "left" can't be victims of "cancel culture".
Grant/Sherman didn't go far enough with "total warfare". They wanted a partnership with the south to unite the country after the war. However today southern ignorance is alive and well.
I’m an 8th generation descendant of Jefferson Davis. I grew up in California, but went to University in the South. I was shocked to receive a letter for a scholarship for the Sons and Daughters of the Confederacy. Despite them attempting to call me multiple times, I eventually turned it down. (Though the debt I’ll be in for the rest of my life has made me doubt my choices) But I was raised understanding the myths of The Lost Cause, and the reality of the War. It was such a shock to witness the outright denial of historical facts in the South, from the average person, to history professors. Mind boggling stuff.
@@TheNightWatcher1385 I genuinely considered it, but I would’ve had to go out to Pulaski, TN (birthplace of the KKK) to accept it, even though their headquarters is 35 minutes north in Columbia, because they were having some freshmen sponsorship program conference or something. Either way, it was a no-go for me.
As a Texan, I can't understand why as a Southerner, I need to place my pride upon a Virginian flag used by an army that fought for a racist society. Why can we not craft a new wave of southern pride that focuses upon the good parts of our culture, and recognize the Civil War and the battle flags for what they are. I can both be damn proud that I'm from Texas, and lambast anyone or any imagery that represents actions that would treat another human being with disrespect.
As a white guy from Georgia (the state) I agree with this statement fellow southerner. It's absurd to have pride about having your home state being apart of an old racist movement that was on its own way out of the country regardless.
@@grahamcochran5400 Although that might be because here in Texas we have more of an independent or rebellious history than the rest of the south. For example, a Mississippian cant look back to an independent Mississippian Republic to draw pride from In the way Texas can.
When I first came to the USA and I was learning US history, I had a teacher who called the Civil War “The War of Northern Aggression” and I assumed it was just an alternative name for the conflict 😬 I’m glad someone corrected me before I went around saying that
Well, the war was started because the north was using tyrannical legislation against the southern states and started arming themselves then in self defense the southern states succeeded only to be destroyed by the north.
@@beavercontrol1743 Technically they responded to a foreign power refusing to leave their territory. Not defending the war, but secession wasn’t against the constitution at the time.
@@TheNightWatcher1385 technically no, the lincoln administration only started raising troops to fight the south after the south fired on fort Sumte. fort Sumter was built on a sandbar in charlston harbour which South Carolina had sold to the US Federal government in 1836. The CSA did not own any part of fort sumter and other similar forts in the south. Also prior to the attack on fort sumter there were many raids on federal armouries and forts across the south. It is incorrect to claim that the CSA was "just responding to [the USA] refusing to leave their territory."
@@TheNightWatcher1385 Regarding the legality of secession Madison wrote in a letter to Hamiilton "The Constitution requires an adoption in toto, and forever." The straight text of the constitution neither explicitly allows for secession nor forbids it. There are clauses that could be argued forbid secession for example; Article 6 Section 2 which was interpreted very early on to mean that federal law outweighs state law. This interpretation implies that a state seceeding, without federal approval, for any reason can be overruled by the federal government. This is all rendered moot by the texas v white decision of 1869 which determined broadly that secession was illegal.
As a southerner from Georgia I have to say that I feel like now the civil war is a lot more accurately portrait, but I did have a few extremely enthusiastic history buff teachers. I had one teacher that was really focused on the human casualties of war and way humans were treated and he went really into detail about the cruelty of slavery. As someone that lives in a city with a civil war battlefield park, I can say that there is definitely plenty of confederate idolization within the south.
As a Millennial in a GA high school in the early 2000's, I still had a US History teacher that focused her course through the lens of Lost Cause rhetoric. We even had a couple of classes dedicated to listening to presentations from the Daughters of the Confederacy, trying to invite us to "explore our heritage" at their facilities and exhibits after school as well. I can't speak directly to the local curriculum quality for the last decade or so, but LC was definitely skewing portrayals of the Civil War in my neck of the woods as recent as Obama's presidency.
@@russscott6907 Which actually, thru the truth lense, "history is record of reality," as in the term; "History Will Judge!" We learn thru what we see, hear, what our interactions w others tell us, as we all form new history. All that must shift our thinking on how we saw history yrs prior. Before Civil Rts changes, our entire nation thru a lense of 'jim crow,' whatever our views were, It was part of our nation's reality. Because of changes cmg from people's activism a new historic lense has come into being that values lives of African Americans, Natives, women, immigrants more visibility previous generations, where white supremacy controled academia/media even more.
@@KohanKilletz Except the 13 colonies had a much more legitimate reason for leaving, and they actually won and became recognized (admittedly with help). The Confederate "states" simply had a temper tantrum to secede and break away over a guy who hadn't even entered the White House yet in order to preserve an immoral institution. So yeah, still a traitor flag. Lol
People who know nothing about the Civil War think it's about slavery. People who know a little about the Civil War think it's about states rights. And people who know a lot about the Civil War know it was about states rights to own slaves
@@jaranarm considering your wording I assume you’re republican yourself. So to change your words to be more accurate, Lincoln(the radical left) vs stuck in the past pro slavery Jefferson Davis(conservative)
@@littlemacisunderrated412 they always try to stick to the party names so they can tacitly say the modern dems were the ones that liked slavery, trying their best to forget that party name is irrelevant compared to party values, conservatives now just like back then were always like this, they hold nearly all the same values just in a different form. Look at the history, look who supports them, see what they fight against.
Actually, it was about the *expansion* of slavery into the territories. Northerners were more than willing to entrench rights of slaveowners to keep their current holdings, just not expand them. But the South didn't want to just keep it.
I am impressed with your video. As a PhD in history I truly believe that truth of our past must be taught: no matter how painful it can be. I do believe our founding documents are wonderful ideals but are ideals we have never truly followed. As a Southerner, a liberal, and a historian the truth is important so we can never repeat our past sins.
Served with many Southern boys in the USMC and Navy. As a first-generation American, I never heard of the Lost Cause until my contact with Southerners in the service.
They are not "neutral" parties. They have a huge amount of self-esteem and group-esteem tied up in this issue. The Lost Cause first arose to serve the psychological needs of white Southerners. It still serves that same purpose today.
Southerners here understand that slavery and racism was a factor in the Civil War but diminishes that factor in favor or economic and state rights. It's a bit like saying the Civil rights movement was solely about voting rights while ignoring racism.
Neo confederates today: "It wAs ThE waR OF NortHeRn AgReSsioN!!!!" "StOp tryInG to DesTroY oUr HeritAgE!!!!" Actual confederates in 1861: "We're fighting for slavery." "We know."
couldn't be more true. its hilarious how beyond ignorant they are when the people at the time where incredibly open with their views. no one was hiding it. the vice president of the confederacy had a whole talk about how slavery was their right by god himself
The elephant wasn't in the room but on the street when locals asked the drunken bellboy to be its shepherd and when the animal acted as a wild animal would, the Southerners lynched it. During the Spanish flu no less.
When I was in high school in Virginia in the late early 80's we were shown a film that was titled "Why we still whistle Dixie". To my teacher's credit he explained that he was required by state law to show the film and used the rest of the class to debunk it.
So he managed to teach: 1- the fallacies of the lost cause 2- tell you how real propaganda works Using a propaganda flick he was forced by law to show you. The guy sounds awesome.
Yeah my teacher in Georgia was apparently required to teach the other causes of the civil war and wasn’t allowed to say slavery was what caused the war but rather things like tariffs culture and state rights. He made his view point pretty clear even if he couldn’t flat out say “slavery was the main cause of the war”
I'm a high school history teacher who just moved from California to Texas. I'm dreading it. I'm not quite sure how to structure my lesson plans and the history of the myth into a curriculum that will still find me employed after a while. Terrible situation for educators who want to teach candid, unapologetic, and sometimes uncomfortable truth.
As far as I can tell, Texas public education has long separated itself from the Lost Cause. Their 2007 state textbook explicitly denounced the previous years for including it (hence why I showed that textbook in the video). In terms of navigating the recent anti-history, anti-abortion, and anti-LGBT laws; yeah it's really atrocious. But you can at least take comfort in the fact that all Texan history teachers are having similar trouble with that. Best of luck
go back you f'ed your state now you wan't f up ours? well's was a HUGE racist..perhaps you learned that in school? Texans are 10 times more worried about people coming from califoria then from mexico hehehe
How groups deal with their "less than proud" history is actually a fascinating topic within Social psychology. I did my Master's thesis on it and it is shocking to see how much People differ in opinion after being confronted with different historic representations.
As someone who lives in the south and used to live in part of it where that "Less than proud" history was celebrated I can say that many just want to be seen as victims, innocent people who were shoved under the north's boot essentially yet when you speak to them they always talk about how soft and weak the north and if thats true then why did the confederacy fail? Why do many people who wave the Confederate flag speak as if the South never did anything wrong, and some I know supported the idea of "Defending property" without thinking about how the confederacy saw other human beings as property or maybe they do know and are genuinely terrible, but for everyone else in the south we essentially just clown and joke about how backwards and ridiculous their ideals are, its a pretty good way to cope with knowing that people in your state still believe in a silly old ideal that caused a war and only existed for a few years, because my dogs have all lived longer then the confederacy existed
@@THERATSANDTHERATS Its interesting how often lovers who did so.ething awful want to be seen as the victim. Japanese textbooks during world War 2 talk about how awful the atomic bomb was and the devastating effects of it. Meanwhile, most other parts of Asia talk about how Brutal life was under Japanese rule during the time, and the problems that arose once Japan was forced to leave those countries.
it reminds me of an interaction my dad had a few weeks back. he was talking to someone and got to the topic of me studying history at university, and how I was currently studying the Mau Mau Uprising in Kenya and the brutal response it received from the British (i.e. torture of prisoners, over 1 million Kenyans being incarcerated in concentration camps), a very dark and degrading part of my country's history. The guy my dad was talking to had the audacity to say that he thought the Kenyans actually did learn quite a lot from the aftermath, and it "showed them what not to do for the future". Just straight up justified actual war crimes, concentration camps, and colonial atrocity. Oh, by the way, this all happened in the 1950s and 60s. Apparently concentration camps are only bad when European people get imprisoned in them.
@@beedubree2550 This is a pretty common talking point. Liberia is a thing because abolitionists and pro-slavery advocates alike assumed freed slaves would now fair better having lived under "western civilization".
Living in a small town in VA, I had teachers in HS as recent as the late 90's/early 2000's that called the civil war "The war of Northern Aggression"....Coincidentally, I also had a biology teacher call evolution "the big lie" so.... that school system clearly had a lot of issues.
Fellow small-town Virginian here, I had plenty of teachers like those. However, I also had an amazing U.S History teacher who would take no shit in his class from any aspiring lost causer.
Holy shit. The indians were right about the lies shared in our schools history books. They said to me once, "you have know idea about the real history of your country". You only learn what the school board wants you to learn. Why don't they teach things in school that would actually help people when they get out of school instead of lies?
Well public schools, in most cases, are put together by elected boards, not by education experts. I remember having to have a conversation with my principal for doing a presentation on the Tulsa Massacre in high school, because in 2005 it was a topic still not taught in high schools. Everything was factual, researched and sited, but I had to take an F on the assignment (midterm) because the school board didn't recognize it as "factual history", and had intentionally excluded it from the curriculum. I grew up in Iowa, so it's not just the south either. Every school district basically has a Council of Nicea, choosing what is accurate and what is..."removed", while having no qualifications to do either.
Scary ... I definitely got a "both sides" argument in 8th grade about the Civil War. We had to read "Battle Cry of Freedom" ... I think the intention was to show the complexity of the Civil War but our teacher definitely downplayed slavery in causing the civil war. As an adult doing my own research it's definitely been all-roads-lead-to-slavery when it comes to causes of the Civil War: * It's about States' rights --> the state's rights to do what? * It's about taxes and tariffs --> taxes and tariffs imposed because of what? * It was about the North imposing its will on the South --> the North's will against what? It's all about slavery. 🤦♀️
Growing up I believed the Civil War was about slavery. As I got older I realized that there were other factors that caused the war. Then I found out that it ultimately was fought over slavery and I was right the first time. The Lost Cause myth taught me how to investigate history and not immediately believe what I was told, I'll give it that.
It's two extremes I guess. As a kid you learn that the war was only about slavery. One side wanted to end it, one side didn't. Then as you get older you learn that it actually a bit more complicated and that there were other factors to involved. Lost Causers try to overstate and emphasize these other factors as somehow being more important that slavery. Then when you really study the history, you see how a lot of these other factors were directly linked with slavery anyway. And when you learn this history of the US in the decades leading up to the civil war, it becomes incredibly obvious that slavery was the cause
Absolutely the BEST detailed explanation of the "Lost Cause" and how it's evolved (or devolved, depending on your POV) over the years. My compliments to all that participated in making this very detailed and easy to follow explanation of something that's been so misunderstood by so many people- with deadly consequences.
Considering what Britain was like during the Industrial Revolution, Thornwell might have had a point about British workers, but saying you treat your slaves better than how British industrialists treat their workers is kind of like being the nicest guy in prison.
Even if accurate, it doesn't address the underlying issue that a person cannot be property. That statement should not be a defense of slavery, but an indictment of the British industrialists.
@Harry Paul Well, sadly as an industrialist you basically could do all those things - usually contract at the time afforded you very little in the way of rights as a worker - and there was basically nothing workers could do (hell it's still pretty difficult to complain when your boss harasses you in the workplace), but yes the thing that marks out slavery is the fact that there isn't even a pretense of rights - I think Eric Daniel summed that up pretty well tbh
Well said. I don't understand the mindset of people who twist logic into knots to justify human slavery. If you agree with the concept brutality as being a " relative " trait then the man who only savagely beats a woman must be a "nice guy" in comparison to someone who savagely beats up a woman then rapes her.
Another good history RU-vid Channel, 'World War II' week by week with Indy Neidell was demonetised apparently because it included too many mentions of Hitler, Nazis and extermination of Jews, which to RU-vid's monitoring programme implied it was extreme right-wing and Antisemitic, although it is neither of those things. It is just that you can't really produce an accurate history of World War II without mentioning Hitler and his policy towards the Jews. The Channel recorded a video protesting at this that featured a number of cats in case that made it more popular with RU-vid and its advertisers.
I live in west Tennessee, right along the Mississippi border, I truly believe most people know exactly what they are doing and know exactly what it means when they fly the confederate flag, heritage, for the most, part is nothing but an excuse to get away with being racist in public, and as somewhat of an intimidation tool
@@patrickcleburneuczjsxpmp9558 what did the Vice President of the confederacy say the war was about in the cornerstone speech?? U can quote any abolitionist u want, the people in charge of the confederacy made it very clear the war was about slavery and white power
@@genkiferal7178 lol I actually grew up in the city of Philadelphia, spent 18 years of my life there, than moved to west Tennessee and have been here about 17 years, the city and rural areas both have ups and downs, but I’d still say Tennessee is the worst just because of all the fake people, everybody is so hateful and so filled with anger and dying for the opportunity to shot someone but they all hide behind god, that rubs me the wrong way….liars, fakes, and crap talkers get me aggravated, doing it in the name of god makes me see red
If the war was about state's rights, then why did the Confederate Constitution not allow their states the right to choose to be a free or a slave state?
They didn’t say shit like states rights until 10 years after they lost. They needed a solid reason to fight. Rather than “preventing servile insurrection” (like it really was) And instead they said states rights and independence to seek more sympathetic and make more sense. “Because why would soldiers fight for slavery? Slavery is bad! There is no way my grandpappy fought for slaves. He never even owned slaves, he was defending his rights!” That’s basically how that goes
In the 1850s states rights were the rights slave owners had, like bringing your slaves up north to free states without losing ownership of their slaves and the right for slave catchers to go north and recapture slaves and bring them back south under the fugitive slave act which turned out to be a disaster as for you had slave catchers rounding up free and former enslaved people alike indiscriminately off the pretense of being antislavery. Slavery was not just a thing that resided in the antebellum south but effected the whole country. From our modern point of view states rights looks like a person's want to fight for one's state and to stand out as the individual and not get swarmed by the collective which are key american values so I see how people become convinced by the lost cause narrative but you must not fall into this trap and actually peer into the eyes of the people who fought for slavery at the time and imagine being in their shoes, they fought for what most wars in history have been waged for.. wealth.
I can only share what I remember from school, 80s child from Ohio here. The South attacked federal installations. The confederate constitution legalized slavery. And they lost. So they are traitors, and instigators. They were ignorant to equal rights. And they were the losing side. Just saying. A lot of this sounds like romanticized history to make lost cause sound valiant instead of vulgar.
@paul lennon politics enslave people. Listen to a man who has enough money to run for any position higher than city council, and you're listening to a man who had never lived in your community. Think for yourself and stop worrying about Republicans and Democrats and you will see they are just trying to bend you to the compliancy. They don't want to help anyone who can't help them stay on power.
@paul lennon are you kidding? Have you checked out their last and current candidates for president? If you read that I was a Democrat from any of my statements, your not reading what I wrote, just seeing what you want. When you have Obama continuing policy such as no tap warrants and Trump spending his time doing, well, whatever he's doing, why would you trust either party?
I'm a senior in highschool this year and when I was in 10th grade I took ap us history and I was taught the lost cause and my teacher would get mad when she would say the civil war was about states rights and I would ask a states right to what? We often got into several arguements that ended in her saying the soldiers didnt fight for slavery and me saying most germans didnt fight just to murder the Jews and her just saying your wrong
I wish i can have that type of discussion, but fortunately my history teachers were smart so there's no need for me to argue with them. Kudos for you to talk like that to your history teacher
glad I wasn't the only one fighting the narrative in high school class rooms. although I've got a step beyond. I'm becoming a history teacher so I can go into high-schools and hopefully keep kids from learning this dribble.
For an interesting illustration of whether or not slavery was really a big deal to the generals, we can look at major-general Patrick Cleburne. Noting that the South was losing the war and needed more manpower, he made a proposal: promise emancipation to blacks who fought for the confederacy. He justified this idea saying "It is said that slavery is all we are fighting for, and if we give it up we give up all. Even if this were true, which we deny, slavery is not all our enemies are fighting for. It is merely the pretense to establish sectional superiority and a more centralized form of government, and to deprive us of our rights and liberties." This was mostly met with polite silence with some outraged, but no support. Making the proposal also got him blackballed from promotions in the army. So I guess they didn't deny it as much as he thought.
That's because Cleburne was far from a typical confederate. An Irish nationalist exiled after the supression of the Young Ireland movement, Cleburne joined theConfederate army to help protect his friends and neighbours (one of a tiny few to do so) and subsequently rose through the ranks. He was one of a vanishingly small number of confederate leaders who didn't care about slavery.
@@CG87343 you mean the crowder-pocalypse. Since steven crowder was the reason it started. Because he kept being homophobic and racist towards Carlos maza. :)
@@eodyn7 "That's not even remotely what he was doing." Lmao. He clearly was being homophobic unless perhaps you're just another one of his biased sycophantic fanboys who isn't interested in arguing in good faith and has a wingnut narrative to feed. *eSs JaY dOuBlE u'S!!!* EDIT: Just checked your channel list, seeing you subscribed to the likes of PragerU, Black Pigeon Speaks, and of course failed comedian Crowder along with other despicable POS's. Yep, I was right on the money! 😁
@False Feathers rustled? Lmao ok sure. No it's not the "voxpocalypse" because vox isn't at fault. It was crowder being homophobic and racist that started it. Calling it the voxpocalypse is revisionist and puts the blame on carlos, which serves the bigoted narrative that crowder did nothing wrong. Maybe learn to be more creative, since you seem to only have 1 thing you know how to say.
“Radical republicans trying to shove civil rights down our throats” “Radical leftists trying to shove LGBTQ rights down our throats” Reactionary talking points haven’t changed that much.
“Reactionary talking” is actually reactive abuse: when a Narcissist or a toxic person deliberately triggers you into reacting to their abuse. In other words, they do or say something obnoxious, you react, they act innocent and ask you what your problem is. Humanizing the LGBQT community in Legal Code does not compare to the delusion of perceiving oneself as having the right to own another human being.
@Pitch Notes It's ironic that under the Confederate constitution that the states had no rights. All power was with the central government. Read it for yourself.
As a black man from Virginia and going to a segregated school. I was taught the evils of slavery and the system that perpetrated it. And I began to read about it own my own. And I guess you can say it stimulated my desire to learn all history. And slavery and the treatment of native Americans was little better than the Nazis treatment of the Jews in Nazi Germany. But it makes people here uncomfortable to remember their past. And until we as Americans and all of us can look back especially the evils perpetrated on just about all people of color and whites who didn't have the same hate in their hearts. That White's from every part of this country, not all but a sizeable majority killed blacks for pure sport and entertainment. And I'm betting that there's a lot of individuals who go looking for their relatives in heaven are going to be disappointed to find them in hell.
@@philipfreeman2863 "not all but a sizeable majority killed blacks for pure sport and entertainment." The fact that you actually believe this nonsense is quite possibly going to allow you to perpetuate the worst sort of sadism on the people you hate in the very near future if political trends continue as they are, all in the name of anti-hatred. The sad thing is that you won't even be able to recognize it even as you are doing it.
@@connor3284 would it make you feel better if he’d said that blacks were killed, raped, dehumanized and abused because whites considered them little more than livestock?
26:00 - Can confirm. My AP US History teacher in high school refused to teach the AP version of the Civil War, instead only referring to it as the War of Northern Aggression and telling us that slavery was nothing more than a footnote in the reasons for war. Literally had a confederate flag in class and everything. Worst teacher I ever had, anyone wanting to pass the AP exam basically had to teach themselves actual history.
@@demi-femme4821 I’m guessing he did not want to teach history, but what he sees as history. That his history is the true, advanced history and not the one “pushed” by schools.
"In fact some of it's strongest membership was in Indiana of all places." Have you been to Indiana? There is a trailer park outside my grandmother's home. I swear I have never in my life seen a higher concentration of confederate flags. And I'm from Texas! It honestly surprises me not one bit.
I’ve been to Indiana once, the whole state is like an embodiment of a trailer park. We stopped at one small gas station with two pumps and an overweight man with a white beard and wearing just overalls and a ballcap walked from across the street to the gas station. The same town had a few confederate flags on flagpoles. I would not feel very safe at all if I wasn’t white, and even though I am white I still got a weird feeling passing through. Made me realize there are worse places to be raised in than IL
@@homosexualitymydearwatson4109 You must not know that 60% of the original settlers of Indiana are from Southern Scotish Heritage. And anything on this planet with a. "X" IS ALWAYS SCOTLAND!
I was taught the lost cause myth in my high school in Utah, and that was as recent as 2016. Granted, it was a charter school and the teacher was a conspiracy nut, but it’s still very much alive today. My parents buy into it too.
@@andrewstar21 Coming from a country where every type of education is regulated by the government and homeschooling is not even allowed, that just sounds hella mad. Schools to teach your kids revised history and keep them away from "brown people". Disgusting!
Oh, god, I know what that's like. It's so annoying when I listen to my parents talk about the Civil War and they always talk about how it wasn't about slavery. Ugh. I love my parents and all, but they can just be so, so ignorant about that kind of stuff.
@@doug814 stfu, yes it does. Knowing this kind of thing helps the rest of the world comprehend why the US is in such sorry shape because of the 45th stirring up desperate southerners who cant stand the idea of living in a less-racist country than they have now. It helps the rest of the world to understand to place most of their anger and frustration with the people who are supporting these confederate values and not to hate the entire country.
@@AdamTheCoop1 I mean ... using southerner diminishes the extent ....and acts as if it’s a geographic thing. Also under cuts the position of the south as a hot bed for civil rights heros and icons. Racism at least online comes largely from the Midwest. Where diversity is rarer so they deal with minorities rarely and they went to trump in droves. I mean the massive amount of racists going to these events ... are from the northern part of the US. Especially looking at militia groups.. Michigan is a huge hot bed for that. The south isn’t the bastion it used to be, it’s one of the most diverse area of the union and it’s solely realizing that. I mean look at Georgia in 2020 or how Alabama got a Democrat senator for the first time in 25 years because the African American community realized they have a voice now and they have always had the numbers but they didn’t realize it or weren’t allowed to realize it but now they do. This is a national issue not geographic
@@AdamTheCoop1 or we can look at modern election stats Alabama and Mississippi voted 40% for Hillary and joe While West Virginia , the least confederate state ever - voted less than 30% dem.. it’s a country wide issue not geographic. Iowa used to be dem now, it’s +10 trump same with Ohio. While North Carolina will go blue likely in the next 10 years. That’s not even mention that a lot of those northern states barely went blue. It’s a nation wide issue so I don’t think reducing it to - dumb sad southern are the reason a New Yorker was able to sweep the nation in 2016 - is correct
@@tysmith9309 i didnt bother reading those long winded responses, if you have so much to say please go ahead and join your brethren and make your own channel to share your message with like minded people
You could make the argument about the Dukes of Hazard. I loved it as a kid and didn’t see as racist. But if you are still flying it now or say chanting “the Jews will not replace us” over the removal of a confederate statue you absolutely know what you’re doing.
The modern "culture wars" are about American culture vs. what's left of Confederate culture. My late father was brought up in Texas believing all this BS. The more I learn about the real Confederacy, the more I despise it. They weren't just racist slave owners, but also extreme classists and materialists.
Indeed. It seems that on every cultural and social issue in American history, the demographic divides and ideological lines that are drawn are the same as those that were drawn in 1861.
RU-vid gives the job to a robot, and tries to make sure their robot isn't leaked to their competitors. It doesn't need to be a perfect robot, it just needs to work well enough and better/cheaper than people trying to review the torrent of nonsense.
@@tylerklovic3330 It becomes more apparent when RU-vid and others face local languages. If RU-vid doesn't have enough people who can filter stuff in english, how many do you think they have that can check norwegian or burmese stuff.
RU-vid is a blatantly right-wing company that panders to Republican troglodytes to maintain unbridled crony capitalism. Same goes for pretty much all social media and every other corporation out there.
@@scabbarae Right now I think RU-vid just wants to avoid work. It wants to sell ads and consumer data and let people watch fun videos, and not get saddled with a position as the world's largest movie publisher and moderator service. Same with facebook, twitter and other services. Doing nothing has been their default.
I too grew up at first being taught the civil war was about state rights, it took a brave high school teacher in my junior year to say “I know the textbook says this, but it was actually about slaves” and it all made perfect sense. Personally, it’s disgusting to see some right wing politicians try to call our education system as indoctrination because it highlights the wrongdoings of our nation. We have a chance to end these tribalistic cycles that have plagued humans of our tribe (race, religion, nationality, etc) to be superior to other groups and warranting prejudice or worse. Videos like this our needed, even though rational people agree with this video as it’s true at the end of the day, an educational system of debate and critical thinking is needed to let these truths be not just taught but realized.
Modern politics in this country is a dumpster fire. Any news story I read the comments and it disheartens me. Tribalism is at an all time high, politics have become like rooting for your sports team, our Congress gets nothing done, culture war nonsense shoved down our throats and I don't know how we find our way again.
I am a junior in a Texas high school, and although my latest course over US History was just last year (2021), I was taught in that class that the initial cause of the Civil War was almost entirely States’ Rights with slavery being a mere side discussion by politicians at the time. My textbook and class tests told me that the issue of slavery only became a central idea of the Civil War near the end and after “Northern media and propaganda” attempted to make the issue of slavery “more drastic than actuality”. I remember those quotes purely because I was astonished by the gull of my education to tell me and my fellow impressionable students such blatant and harmful lies. I hope that soon this will be reformed in my local school district, because I know that many people my age wouldn’t bother doing outside research, but rather just internalize the information that they are literally tested over.
That's Texas for you. They buy more textbooks than any other state in the country, too, so textbook publishers generally only write textbooks that will be approved by racist Texas school boards.
I had an AP US history teacher that was a massive shit stirrer and one day he said to open our books to the section about the Oregon trail. He said to look at the formation of Utah and mormons, and pay attention to the verbage. It was extremely charitable and favorable to the Mormon creation myth and their plight. He told us this was because they would lose business in mormon regions if it WASNT positive and we should be critical of everything. Even our textbooks.
I was raised immersed in this. Deeply. Once when we were playing Civil War when I was living in Mississippi, my dad got mad and told me I shouldn't pretend to be a Yankee. I don't really know if I can ever fully escape it, but I've been trying to at least learn more.
@Mimi EF This is the information age! I grew up in the North, and I had a history teacher who believed all the Lost Cause Propaganda 😞 My real history education came with books, C Span, and University lectures ( free on line )
Like the replies state, you're already LEAGUES above these confederate apologist whackjobs by even TRYING in the first place! You already win! Now you just have to keep on working at it, and you'll be fine and glorious! Its been five months by now, so I assume you might be closer to fully cleansing your mind of the propaganda by now.
I grew up in Mississippi, in a city famous for having the final residence of Jefferson Davis, the president of the CSA. I can tell you with 100% certainty that people here and the south more broadly believe whole heartedly in the Lost Cause myth and treat it as non negotiable fact. Younger generations are much less likely to hold it, but almost everyone 30+ believe it because it’s what they’ve always been told. I had teachers in public school who even taught us the lost cause as history and consciously de-emphasized slavery as a major factor in the civil war. Hell, when I was a kid even I believed it, because it’s what was taught to everyone and anyone who disagreed was treated as biased against the south. I only broke out of it when I became interested in history and started researching the subject for myself. The lost cause isn’t just dangerous, it’s extremely pervasive in the south, and educators have a moral mandate to combat it.
Didn't he live in Liverpool for a time? If he'd stayed longer he might have met the Beatles. on a serious note, the South is still hopelessly fucked up.
Fellow Mississippian and it’s exhausting when trying to explain anything historical to older generation when they denounce anything that they weren’t taught in school
Just an unimportant side note: technically, ‘Song of the South’ doesn’t depict master-slave relations since it’s set after the Civil War, and shows former master-former slave relations (all happy and wonderful, of course, no hard feelings!).
Many slaves did return to their former masters to work for wages, Of course slavery was an evil practice obviously I'm just pointing out that this happened.
And the abuse continued. If my memory serves correctly my grandmother's family were sharecroppers and I was told that they were practically forced to stay ever they were and suffer any abuse inflicted.
@@jordana.6874 That would be because the Jim Crow South made it nearly impossible for them to go anywhere, plus there's always the psychology of "the devil you know"...
When I was a kid just old enough to appreciate the significance of "Daisy Dukes" I absolutely loved the Dukes of Hazard. It was a much simpler time then and I was just a kid so even though the show was the exact same plot over and over every week sure did love the General Lee. I never saw the flag for anything other than being rebellious and in the 1980's wearing a Confederate Battle Flag on my jacket as a teen in Upstate NY wasn't seen or meant as anything racist it was more about rebelling against all of the neon and pink and plaid clothing that was "preppy" and popular.... I wouldn't wear one now obviously as what the flag represents now and as I have become more aware, but in those days if someone called me a racist because of the patch on my jacket I would have had no idea what they were talking about....
when I was in highschool, I used to see this kid wearing rebel shirts most of the time. I always saw him chatting and being cool with another student who was black.
The flag was a very fashionable patch to have sewn over the holes in our jeans when we were kids in England/Scotland/Ireland/Wales in the 1960s-1980s too,purely because it was a great-looking American graphic,and in fact still is a design classic!!...I don`t think any of us had any clue what it meant at all,and most probably still don`t and couldn`t care less either way.
@@mjh5437 kind of reminds me of when i was a kid, i used to draw swastikas ( I'm mixed and have dark skin) because i thought they looked cool. It wasn't until i was in middle school (maby a grade or 2 earlier) that i fully appreciated what it meant and how terrible the nazis were.
My 4th grade teacher told us the civil war was about states' rights, not slavery. This was in Phoenix AZ in 1964. I didn't buy it. I thought to myself "wasn't the right they were fighting for the right to own slaves"? Denying history shows weakness and lack of character.
@@kennethmcclain3907 literally in the town my hunting land is in... there is a monument paid for by a local - it’s a big flag and a bunch of plagues talking about Lincoln’s tax war .... Now is it as common as it used to be - no, atleast in cities or decent size towns
It was the War Southern Aggression, The south secdeed from the Union illegal, secession was unconstitutional. The South fired on Fort Sumter SC on April 12,1861 at 4:30 am.
@@DrCruel Explain how. I'm not being disingenuous, I'm actually curious. I know fascism has pseudo socialistic tendencies because fascism was weird but that's about all I know l.
Honestly I wouldn’t even give the Lost Cause the honor of being a “Myth”. Myths at the very least imply some semblance of truth in their foundation or origin, which the Lost Cause lacks. I would instead prefer to refer to it as a historical fallacy.
@@user-tf5lg7fc9s You of all people should know that the unmitigated and absolute Truth is that the Civil War was fought by the Confederacy to preserve slavery. It is the inconvenience of this Truth that has led to many a false claim that those traitors fought for more just causes. The leaders of the Confederacy did not, and they had not a single proper or moral justification to betray their nation. They did so anyways because they wished to keep slavery going in the South for their own profit and greed.
When I was in the ARMY (2004-2009), they were just starting to force soldiers to not have Confederate Flags in their barracks, cars or on post housing. They all said heritage as their reasoning too. It was not until I took a history class did I learn about all the states declarations of succession and the cornerstone speech. I have opened up many eyes since.
@@patrickcleburneuczjsxpmp9558 their intentions. They declared the need to preserve slavery and laid out the framework for white supremacy. Did the Declaration of Independence prove our intentions?
How dare you talk about this issue that I have no idea what it actually is about! The video isn't even out yet I am already outraged at your incompetence to present a thorough and unbiased argument. I will have to unsubscribe from such a heinous channel. Good day sire! I SAID GOOD DAY!!!!!!
@@kingrollypollyvii5565 Actually no around 30% of the white male population owned slaves. Also many soldiers wrote in their personal leters abd diaries that they were fightinf for slavery. Also even if they didn't the reason why the soldier fight does not change the reason the war started
When confronted with those who would claim that the Civil War was not about slavery, I quickly point them to the "Cornerstone Speech" delivered by Alexander Stephens of Georgia, Vice-president of the Confederacy. On March 21, 1861 in Savannah, GA Stephens outlined to his constituents the defense of the institution of slavery as the root cause of secession. It serves as a primary document to illustrate the mindset of southern statesmen.
As somebody who grew up in a southern state I didnt know the civil war was about slavery until the 5th grade where I found it online. It was all about how bad slavery was when we were talking about the revolutionary war and the settlers but as soon as the civil war became a topic it was all state rights and how sad brother was against brother.
@@anatomicalx9355 Yeah. Tarfiel is right. Its all over their documents of secession, journals, and what have you that slavery was front and center. Calling it 'states rights' just makes it go down easier then the truth.
@@anatomicalx9355 Believe as you like. A close reading of the old Confederates' words doesn't support states rights as the primary point of contention, except as a fig leaf to justify slavery.
@@anatomicalx9355 You can keep ignoring reality all you want, but the Confederates themselves would laugh at you saying they weren't fighting to keep the institution of slavery.
@@mackinblack It was a slow and gradual change. Policies shifted after the New Deal, the civil rights movement, and other periods where the Democrats took more socially liberal actions, and became the modern democrat party of today. The Republicans, as the opposition to the Democrats, went in the opposite direction and have ended up as the social conservative party. Democrats aren't flying confederate flags. Republicans are. 120 years ago, the Democrats would and the Republicans would have never. Also, you are more than likely a troll is my guess. If you do want to know more about the party switch, I would watch the Knowing Better episode on it.
@@literallyme2071 it's a bit more complicated than "the parties switched" there were racist democrats as late as the 90s. Only in the last 10 years have they really reached out to minorities. For the last 70 years they moreso cornered the vote
@@jknott1509 I agree but, the Democrats are the more liberal party now. John Oliver shouldn’t be associated with the racists that have been around in the 70/80s.
I am a Canadian who heard the idea of states rights and that a slaves lot wasn't so bad back in high school American history class (late 70s -early 80s). This was by a Canadian teacher. Later I had a genuine American history teacher for American history who taught none of this myth.
I believe my teachers, who also taught that the big bang theory and continental drift were new radical ideas, were lazy and were just passing on what they learned when they were young.
The British/Canada gave assistance to the Confederacy because they wanted to weaken the US (allowing Confederates to use Canada and the Bahamas for spying, providing battleships like the CSS Alabama and materiel to the Confederacy, the Chesapeake affair, the St Albans raid on Vermont, John Wilkes Boothe plotting his assassination of Abraham Lincoln with other Confederate supporters in Montreal, etc) so it might be an uncomfortable topic, even if any British/Canadian support for the Confederacy wasn't out of support for slavery. The British textile mills did switch from sourcing cotton from the South to sourcing it from Egypt as the war went on though.
Confederate soldiers went to war defending the South for the same reason any soldier in any country ever did- Because they completely by chance were from there.
I appreciate your nuance about the Confederate battle flag’s use today, but I’ll see it flown all the time where I am in rural Michigan, in the heart of Yankee country. It doesn’t have anything to do with their heritage; they have to know what they’re doing by flying it.
I live in rural Iowa and I see that flag fairly often as well. I even know some of the people who fly it and can say with the upmost certainty they have no ties to the south. It is crazy on the 4th when I see people with the Confederate flag flying from their trucks, and my so called “patriot” friends using every excuse possible to try and justify it.
Can confirm this about Michigan. I live in the suburban part of it and I see people who've spent their entire lives in Mt Clemens and Clinton Township trying to claim that flag as their heritage. Wonder what part of the heritage they find so appealing that it makes them want to cosplay as these idiots?
well you see Mr. Historian let me learn you a wee bit bout this here war of northern aggression. You see the war was in fact about about states rights specifically the states rights to remove the rights of certain people but states rights none the less. And secondly it was in fact a war of northern aggression you see they got very aggressive after we invade and took over multiple american military armories and forts located in the south. And of course the carpet baggers were trying to destroy and punish the south with their reconstruction as they made it so much harder to you know own slaves and all with all their amendments and laws and what not.
Seriously stop twisting the history. There is no such thing as states rights. To own a slave was not a right it was privilege. That war was all about southern white privilege. But also to be clear - north didn't want to free slaves in the south because they like black people. Actually they wanted to free slaves in the south because northern farmers couldn't compete with southern farmers. Northern farmers had more expenses because they had to pay their workers. Slavery was illegal in the north. If you or anyone else reading this thinks that southern farmers had to feed their slaves so they had expenses too - well you all are missing one crucial point. In the north workers who worked in the fields (manual work) had to be payed by their employers and also fed by their employers. Remember two things that makes people civilized. You never can have right to take someone's rights and you can never build your freedom by taking freedom from others.
Overall this is really excellent and I agree with your outlook here. This mythology is a huge problem in modern society. One niggling point: a belief system has TENETS, not "tenants." I like to say that unless a belief system has people paying to live in it, it doesn't have tenants.
@@pbjman5809 Most successful doesn't mean the best, Niall Ferguson was I believe the historian who posited that the French army is overall the most succesful army in the world based on their rate of wars won versus wars lost. According to him, out of 169 battles fought since 387BC, they have won 109, lost 49 and drawn 10. Which is by far the highest rate in the world, although it's fair to point out that France really wasn't a think until Charlemagne and even then it's not actual France as we'd see it today, and that battles won is not an exact measure for success in war due to the simple fact that the small war was at least as important as the much, much more rare large field battles. Still the French Army from it's founding in 1445 has seen much more success overall than any other army in the world, despite having existed for nearly 600 years, which also makes it one of the oldest standing armies in the world, their 1st Infantry Regiment is also one of the oldest, if not THE oldest currently serving military unit, having been formed in 1479.
I took a job in Florida for a while, and I can't tell you how many times I encountered Lost Cause crap. I learned to run, not walk, away from people that began sentences with "You know, the Civil War wasn't about slavery". Right up there with people that said "You know, Hitler had some good ideas but just went too far".
@James Longstreet wrong. Harper's ferry was done by private citizens against the federal government. The first shots were fired by cadets from the Citadel Military Academy on the steamship, Star of the West, which was resupplying Union troops. The Anaconda plan took place after both the attack on the Star of the West and Fort Sumter. The first violence of the occupation of Maryland took place 4 days after the attack on the Star of the West. I stand by my comment en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Star_of_the_West en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Maryland_in_the_American_Civil_War
how dare you. I am a totally unbiased citizen and I only get my facts from reputable sources. I can tell you right now that Han in fact did not shoot first! confederacy totally did tho lol
@@reeesistance1625 Lincoln did nothing of the sort. The plantation owners wanted to continue owning slaves, and feared they have actually have to pay thier labor, and they considered Lincoln to be a threat. Secession was done on their own accord
@James Longstreet Sumter was a US base threatened by rebels. By your logic, your saying it's ok if a left wing group trying to secede from the Union takes a naval base in California. The federal government was completely justified in protecting their military base. I still stand by my comment
@Stonewall Jackson Diverse lmao Most of the soldiers of the Confederacy were white, who were trying to protect their state's rights. That being, of course, being the right to own slaves. There were Native Americans who fought, on the Confederate side, but they fought only because they thought that it would protect their tribes from extermination, by the Americans. Just like the Natives, on the Union side, who thought that they would keep their sovereignty by proving their loyalty. Of course, even if the CSA had won the Civil War, it's not like the Confederacy would have expanded anyway, there were even plans to. en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Knights_of_the_Golden_Circle
Pretty good. Being a historian and living in Mississippi I get to see a lot of this close up. The term "Revisionist" is often misused to refer to the more recent historians as having political agendas in History. I think that, when one speaks of "Revisionism" the Lost Cause and the resulting Dunning School are the earliest revisionists, the people who experienced the war are often seen as brethren afterwards. One has only to read the responses of the US veterans to efforts to erect Confederate monuments on the Gettysburg Battlefield to realize that the animosity lived long afterwards. Here in Mississippi it was even more obvious. The Lost Cause reference to Carpetbaggers and Scallywags deliberately aviods dealing with what was most common here. Tens of thousands of enslaved Mississippians joined the US Army. Thousands of them fought a constant guerilla war against Confederate irregulars and civilian guerillas to control Mississippi and prevent murders of civilians. After the war many of these folks on both sides settled in the same communities. Old enemies did not magically become friends. The largely African American Republican Party gained political control until the violent voter supression of the 1870s changed all that. The Lost Cause myth doesn't cover that part of the story because to do so would admit that the US Colored Troops existed, succeeded, and the veterans gained political power through elections, not through disenfrachisement. Foner once said that the times historians live in influence the questions they ask, but shouldn't influence the answers. That's what's changed, historians are asking different questions and reexamining the questions previous historians asked.
Revisionism gets a bad rep from the likes of David Irvine, other neo-nazi holocaust deniers and wehrmacht apologists glomming on to the name in order to legitimise their lies.
i do wonder if yt could get sued based off of breaking their contract/terms of service themselves. technically they followed all the rules of the terms of services, yet didn't get paid. i think it'll inevitably happen but idk when
As a southerner myself, I'd like to say that nowadays it's really rare that you run into Lost Causers. It was a little more common in my youth (90's), but the vast majority of them were really old back then and are no longer alive today. The most you're likely to find here are its fragmentary remains, i.e. single aspects of the Lost Cause myth that people somehow manage to hold despite the clear cognitive dissonance it causes them. For example you find people who believe that slavery was evil, that it was bad for slaves, and that it was the main reason for secession, yet they also believe most southerners didn't go to war to preserve slavery. Or they think the reason for war eventually morphed into protecting slavery, but that the war was initially started over states rights. Etc. Views that make no sense if you spend more than 10 seconds thinking about them. I think the main issue for modern southerners who, by and large, don't hate black people is reconciling our modern sensibilities of equality and justice with our desire to take pride in our heritage. That's part of why the south is so patriotic, even though technically that patriotism is being directed towards the very government that defeated our ancestors. Again it makes no sense to take pride in BOTH sides of the civil war, but if you don't think about it for more than 10 seconds then you can hold both beliefs. As for me, my dad grew up in a poor family during desegregation in the 60's and 70's. By high school he had made a number of black friends because of it and so instilled in me an understanding that racism in all its forms was wrong. He even warned me from time to time that my grandparents were pretty racist deep down and that I shouldn't learn that from them. Like the Lost Causers, they're both long gone now and their racist attitudes, thankfully, went with them.
The lost cause is alive and kicking today. Two of its main proponents are Donald Trump and Ron de Santis. Be very careful with mythology like this and never underestimate its power, for it will lead to holocaust.