I write and post a lot of historical articles mainly related to the Ozarks and the Civil War. Most of it is well received but every now and then and sometimes someone feels the need to dispute what I say. It’s only natural but most of the time when someone is triggered they make a counterpoint by grabbing the first headline that they feel makes their case.
Ironically I rarely discuss slavery because in the Ozarks, it really wasn’t an issue. Those that fought for the Confederacy in the area usually did so for one of two reasons:
1: Their view on patriotism was based on the fact that they believed in loyalty to the State in which they were living first.
2: Their first taste of war came at the hands of local Union militias looking for opportunities to benefit themselves at the expense of their victims.
On one forum someone posted a video from the Washington Post entitled: “How a propaganda campaign to minimize slavery’s role in the civil war became American history”
The obvious take away from the video is to place emphasis on slavery as being a cause of the war. Anyone who doesn’t believe this is accused of subscribing to a “Lost Cause” belief.
My response to these types of accusations is to take a look at how former slaves were treated in the post-war North. The May 18, 1866 edition of Charleston Courier (Mississippi County, Missouri) carries an article originally published in the Princeton (Indiana) Democrat newspaper, which carried the headline “A Henderson County Nigger on the Witness Stand” The article needs no explanation.
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