Questions About John Brown

[My Name Is Kate]

I can think of at least one other instance in this nation's history of having your cake and eating it too: Forcing the south back into the Union after they had seceded because the President was no longer representing them and what they considered to be their number one interest (slavery and all the (undeserved) benefits it brought them), but first passing the 13th Amendment while the South was still seceded, and ridding the Constitution of its recognition of the legality of slavery, plus freeing all the slaves everywhere in the country. Maybe that was the only way to get rid of slavery, but isn't it true that the freed slaves paid a pretty high price for the subsequent white southern anger at what they considered betrayal by their own government and country? Though legally "free", black people were still essentially powerless, so it was easiest for the betrayed to vent the brunt of their anger and hatred on them.

Before anyone accuses me of being pro-slavery, I want to try to make my point extra clear: Did no one in the Lincoln administration or among the Radical Republicans foresee major race relations problems in the country after slavery had been eradicated, particularly because of the way it was eradicated? Apparently not, or apparently they didn't care enough, since interest in the plight of the freed slaves waned soon after the war ended.