I am halfway through watching the excellent Ken Burns documentary on the US Civil War

[Peter]

Yes. In fact, there's also a strong argument that slavery retarded technological, economic and industrial development, since it meant that, rather than develop more efficient technology, they could just chuck manpower at the problem.

A fact that seems obvious to us now but wouldn't have to them. Its the root cause of the civil war in the sense that slavery permitted the two parts of the country to grow so far apart economically over a century that so many areas of policy would divide them.

I read a rather hilarious piece about changing the name of a school from washington-Lee to just Washington. THe argument seemed to be that although Washington had owned slaves he had fought a war that wasnt treason and forged a democracy. Lee had fought a war of treason and had owned slaves.

Kind of stepped over the fact that the revolutionary war WAS an act of treason, and that the difference between revolution and treason is victory. He also forged a democracy that allowed slavery. Funnier still, almost all the slaves that Lee owned were acquired through marriage to.....Martha Washington's great grand daughter. He inherited the descendants of the same slaves Washington had owned....

But yeah, the first one is a hero and the second a slave-owning racist....

[eastgermanautos]

A fact that seems obvious to us now but wouldn't have to them. Its the root cause of the civil war in the sense that slavery permitted the two parts of the country to grow so far apart economically over a century that so many areas of policy would divide them.

I read a rather hilarious piece about changing the name of a school from washington-Lee to just Washington. THe argument seemed to be that although Washington had owned slaves he had fought a war that wasnt treason and forged a democracy. Lee had fought a war of treason and had owned slaves.

Kind of stepped over the fact that the revolutionary war WAS an act of treason, and that the difference between revolution and treason is victory. He also forged a democracy that allowed slavery. Funnier still, almost all the slaves that Lee owned were acquired through marriage to.....Martha Washington's great grand daughter. He inherited the descendants of the same slaves Washington had owned....

But yeah, the first one is a hero and the second a slave-owning racist....

Well, don't you know a lot!