re: History Debate: Ulysses S. Grant vs. Robert E. Lee

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Maybe no Klan. But I hope hou realize that Jim Crow was the law in each state and racial segregation was codified in detail by local and state governments.

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Well there almost certainly wouldn’t have been a Klan since it was started first in response to carpet baggers and then transformed into a very powerful anti-black organization. I don’t think the hatred and anti-black sentiment would have been nearly strong enough to create the at one time 3 million plus member Klan without the war.

Yes I know Jim Crow was the law in both the North and South. I also agree that some form of Jim Crow would have followed the freeing of slaves. I said in my post it would not have been a quick process. I don’t know that what would have followed would have been as bad or as long standing as Jim Crow, that is something we would never know. So no I do not believe it would have been a next day thing. I said it would be a very painful assimilation in the short term for freed slaves. But I think the acceptance and assimilation would have taken far less than 150 years if the process had been accomplished through legislation rather than war. Many southerners who probably had no ill will or an opinion regarding slaves before the war and reconstruction ended up having hate and animosity after the war because they blamed blacks for their condition after the war. The war brought an abrupt end to an awful institution, but I think it created a horrible aftermath that still lingers today.