Treatment of the Former CSA

I believe God wanted to punish them s'more for continuing slavery, so He allowed JWB to whack Lincoln, who was a Christian & who woulda led a humane "Reconstruction".

 

Reconstruction was rough on many blax, as many of their former masters ran them off their property, homeless, with no work available. They weren't welcome in the North, as many workers saw them as a threat to offer their services for lower wages, thus replacing them. (Unions weren't too strong then.)

The lucky blax in the South were hired by their former masters as paid hands in their former slave jobs, or were hired by the govt. for rebuilding projects. Likely, they were being punished as well for apostasy, as most of them had heard the Gospel & few came to Jesus.

 

Salty, re: If the USA had treated the CSA as we did Japan...

Had Confederates experienced A-bombs up close, yes they might have been much more compliant as Japan was!

 

No. At the end of World War Two, Japan was a foreign power that had a fanatical allegiance to its Emperor. General Douglas MacArthur knew this and used it to his advantage. The Japanese have their own experience with racism towards "Gaijin" (outsiders).

Abraham Lincoln instructed General Ulysses S. Grant to offer favorable terms to surrendering Confederates. Men with horses were allowed to keep them so they could use them to start sowing seed since it was planting season. However, the Confederacy had committed treason (in the eyes of the Union) and Union military and political leaders demanded retribution. The Emancipation Proclamation, followed by the 13th Amendment, guaranteed future racial tensions in the South. Could these tensions have been avoided? It is doubtful. Television and movies like to simplify the multitude of issues that lead up to the Civil War and the painful century that ensued after its conclusion. The fact is that the issues were complex and fluid. During Reconstruction, many blacks decided to migrate north to escape the South's failing economy and visceral hatred directed towards them. This migration to Nothern cities created serious problems that are present today. Blacks were as welcome in Northern cities as they were in the South. While racism still exists (it will always exist), it is nothing like it was during the Jim Crow era. I guess you say that, 154 years later, our nation is still feeling the effects of the Civil War.

 

Yes, I do think a more severe, longer, and thorough Reconstruction was necessary to extirpate the pernicious influence of Slave Power in the South. In postwar Germany and Japan, the US was willing to station soldiers long-term as well as dictate the new structures of government and even institute socioeconomic reforms such as land redistribution and seizure of assets. Similarly, the federal government should have imposed a new order in the South by immediately crushing any sort of terror movements like the KKK, redistributing land from plantation owners to freedmen as well as poor whites (thus giving the latter a stake in the Reconstruction order while weakening the political, economic, and social influence of the planter class), and possibly even restricting the most egregious Confederates from holding political office. The Treaty of Versailles after World War I failed because the reactionary Prussian Junker class continued to exist and though mostly not Nazi themselves, was willing to get Hitler into power.

I might add there is a certain difference in how Japan and Germany view the war even in the present. While the German government and society generally recognizes war crimes, the Japanese government does not leading to controversies even now over her recognition of responsibility for comfort women (ie sex slaves) and forced labourers in Korea and other conquered areas. Rather than recognizing such guilt, Japan has imposed export restrictions on South Korea after courts in the latter country demanded Japanese corporations pay restitution to the few surviving labourers. This may be due to a variety of factors including a greater survival of the prewar Japanese elite and especially the Emperor himself who was never put on trial for war crimes.

 

Probably would have been better. The system of reconstruction was designed to transfer the land and wealth of the South to the carpet bagger. The underlying theme of reconstruction was make the South treat the freed slaves well but they were not welcome in the north.

 

Life became harder for many former slaves, as their former "massas" often kicked them off their land & they had no homes nor means of making a living. I believe Lincoln woulda made some proposal to help them make their way.

Unionization of many northern industries kept them from offering their services for lower wages any more, so many turned to menial work in order to survive. And, of course, the Southern carpetbaggers soon began making "Jim Crow" laws.