Jerks in History

[J. Beckert]

The country was in quite a conundrum over the slavery issue at the time. Lincoln himself had conflicting thoughts over how to handle it. Relocate and colonize? Emancipate? Leave it alone except where it exists? One of his first laments on taking office was the fact that he had to deal with this issue. None of that was clear in 1860 and the fact that states wanted to deal with it on their own was, in my opinion, the crux of the conflict. To paint the South as slave raping, slave beating heathens is wrong. Viewed in the context of the times, there was no clear cut answer until the Emancipation Proclamation was issued.