Robert E Lee The Great Emancipator

[Liz Rosenthal]

A pattern of what, Laurie? A pattern of being critical of the Ante-bellum South and the Jim Crow South? If that's what you mean, I'm guilty as charged. And I'm not ashamed of my guilt.

Now, I am fully aware that the North was complicit in slavery; I've read a bit on the subject. There was a lot of money to be made by everybody. The illegal slave trade was often engaged in by northerners. There were laws in a number of states either prohibiting the migration of free blacks into their states or prohibiting them from voting and/or owning property or both. Abolitionists were often in mortal danger in the North.

But the Northern states did get rid of slavery. Admittedly, this proceeded over a long period of time, but they got rid of it. The South clung to a disgusting and vile institution, all the while making excuses for it. They preferred to secede than acquiesce to any limitations on the spread of slavery.

My point in making the comparison between Lee-and-Emancipation and Hitler-and-Israel was, I think, apt, even if slavery didn't involve genocide. Both were crimes against humanity. Both were enabled by fear, hatred and indifference. Both involved unimaginable suffering. So I'll stick with my analogy. (Although, in general, as TBlunk pointed out, my main motivation here was to compare implausibilities.)

Incidentally, although slavery was not genocide, many aspects of it were reminiscent of the treatment of Jews in Europe before and during World War II. And many aspects of the Jim Crow South were reminiscent of the treatment of Jews in Germany and Austria in the years leading up to World War II, and the plight of Jews in Eastern Europe during the latter part of the 19th century and the first third of the 20th century. I'm talking about instances of mass random violence and killing, as well as a plethora of legal disabilities.

Someone here, on another thread, was wondering why Jews and blacks worked together during the U.S. Civil Rights movement, positing that it must have been due to the fact that Hebrews had been slaves in Egypt thousands of years ago. Well, no, that wasn't really the reason. What both groups had in common were very similar *recent* histories.