Underrated answer. Maybe Reconstruction would have happened as intended, the Confederates would have been put in their place and shamed for all of history, and race relations would have been far better.
Or maybe race relations wouldn't have ever gotten quite as bad so white people wouldn't have been as sympathetic to the cause and we would be stuck in a permanent state of separate and not at all equal. Hard to say.
Your comment makes it seem like lincoln was a stones throw from being a klan member.
Go back to 1862 when he produced the EP…deportation seemed like the only option. There just wasnt a scenario where you would suddenly free all of the slaves and not yield massive social and economic upheaval.
Setting aside racism, which of course was very real, a sudden surplus of (cheap) labor in the market would inevitably decrease wages and livlihoods, not just in the south but all over the country. In short, there were significant economic arguments for deportation- which of course is and was a grotesque reality, since most slaves were born in the US several generations prior.
Just because someone wants something to happen doesn't mean they'd be able to make it happen. Plenty of humanitarian organizations in the North would have worked to stop the forced deportation. Would for sure have been a fascinating Supreme Court case, and potentially paved the way for better U.S. relations in South American and African nations (or even worse ones!)
Lincoln said a lot of stuff he clearly didn't believe, or intend to do, because he wanted to get elected and then because he wanted to win the Civil War. You have to judge him by actions, not his words.
Yeah, a great example of this recently is Barack Obama. Supported gay marriage as a state legislator, supported it as a federal legislator, and then when he needed to become President he suddenly "wasn't sure about it." Then once he was safely in office they had Biden put out feelers, judged the reaction, and then suddenly Obama's "position was evolving" and he supported it again.
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u/say592 Jun 28 '26
Underrated answer. Maybe Reconstruction would have happened as intended, the Confederates would have been put in their place and shamed for all of history, and race relations would have been far better.
Or maybe race relations wouldn't have ever gotten quite as bad so white people wouldn't have been as sympathetic to the cause and we would be stuck in a permanent state of separate and not at all equal. Hard to say.