-165 I think people misunderstand the sides in the Civil War. The South was not racist; they didn't accept blacks as a race, but they did as individuals. My great grandfather hated blacks, but was BFFs with his black neighbors. The North wasn't racist either; they accepted the blacks as a race, but less as individuals. They wanted to give them rights, but didn't have black friends. Amirite?

by Anonymous 14 years ago

interesting theory, I am not sure if I agree because I think whites and blacks were friends in the north too in some circumstances but interesting idea

by Anonymous 14 years ago

this is not a theory. It's the truth.

by Anonymous 14 years ago

This is complete crap. If a person is so deeply racist that they were okay with slavery, they wouldn't have black friends. It was still rare for whites and blacks to be friends in the north, but it was more common then in the south.

by Anonymous 14 years ago

Maybe you need to take it with a grain of salt, but my history book this year (The American Pageant) did actually say that people had more personal relationships with blacks in the South but it was still a racist society, while in the North people approved of them in theory but they were less likely to interact. I dunno. I didn't live then.

by Anonymous 14 years ago

That's because most of the black people lived in the South. Not because they weren't racist.

by Anonymous 14 years ago

.......Seriously?

by Anonymous 14 years ago

if your "great grandfather hated blacks" how could he be friends with a black neighbor, that doesn't quite fit together

by Anonymous 14 years ago

I didn't really get this...I'm kind of agreeing with the people above me ^^, how could your great grandfather be BFFs with black neighbors if he hated blacks? Maybe some explaining??

by Anonymous 14 years ago

It's the difference between individuality and the group. Someone can hate the group, but love a single individual. For example, I hate all the posts of MLIA as a group. But there is this one, INDIVIDUAL post that makes me laugh every time I read it. Same with the grandpa and his black friend

by Anonymous 14 years ago

Thank you.

by Anonymous 14 years ago

WTF???

by Anonymous 14 years ago

How the fuck did this make the homepage?? And how the fuck is this positive???

by Anonymous 14 years ago

I'm with you on that one.

by Anonymous 14 years ago

haha, I hate you but I'll be your best friend. Doesn't make much sense

by Anonymous 14 years ago

If there is something that people don't understand about the Civil war it's that Lincoln was no hero, he couldn't have cared less about slavery or not, all he wanted to do was preserve the Union. He allowed the so called "border states" to have slaves so they wouldn't separate.

by Anonymous 14 years ago

I see people are voting this down but it is actually the truth (well apart from saying Lincoln wasn't a hero, because in some ways I think he was). But he didn't really care about freeing the slaves; he just didn't want to lose the war. And from a political standpoint, making slavery an issue made sense. One of the major motivations in making the war about slavery was so that England couldn't get involved on the side of the South.

by Anonymous 14 years ago

Haha, AP U.S. History stuff...I know i sound like a conspiracy theorist but if you pick up an AP book you'll find it in there. And you're right, he spent a lot of time trying to avoid the war in the first place, if i remember correctly he made a deal that gave the south the Fugitive slave laws allowing slave owners to hunt down slaves that escaped to the north. Obviously it didn't help avoid a war, but still. One of our most revered presidents wasn't really the great guy most people think he was.

by Anonymous 14 years ago

Just because he didn't want to go to war over slavery doesn't mean he wasn't a great President or good person.

by Anonymous 14 years ago

I'm sorry, you're right, i didn't mean for it to sound like that, he clearly wasn't a bad person, and had to have been a good leader to win the war. I'm just saying that he's great for different reasons than most people believe he is.

by Anonymous 14 years ago

ok, i agree that the war was not *just about slavery, but im a little confused about how your granddad could hate blacks, but be friends with one. thats the part thats throwing me off a little.

by Anonymous 14 years ago

The key to knowing this story is fake is that he said his grandpa was friends with his black NEIGHBORS. Blacks didn't own houses in the South at that time.

by Anonymous 14 years ago

Good point, but the OP's great-grandfather couldn't have possibly been alive during the Civil War. My parents' great -grandfathers weren't born until after the Civil War, so even if the OP is an adult, it's not a relevant statement. Either way, though, the argument is a bad one.

by Anonymous 14 years ago

And by "the argument" I meant the OP's and not yours...just to clarify. :)

by Anonymous 14 years ago

My great grandfather was 50 when he had my grandfather, so shut the fuck up and stop being so judgmental. Older people can have kids, too!

by Anonymous 14 years ago

Actually, slavery was mainly made an issue in the Civil War because the North didn't want England to get involved, and if they made it so that the South was supporting slavery, England couldn't side with them. Slavery wasn't even one of the original issues for fighting. So it was mainly about politics and not personal feelings.

by Anonymous 14 years ago

shes jut saying this cause she doesnt want to believe her grandpa was racist

by Anonymous 14 years ago

He was racist! I know that.

by Anonymous 14 years ago

The war was about the confederacy not wanting to join the union and become part of the "united states" slavery wasn't even brought up until AFTER the war started when slaves were used as confederate soldiers

by Anonymous 14 years ago

First of all, "not wanting to join the union"? What? The southern states were already a part of the union! And second of all, saying slavery wasn't part of the issues is ignorant. Slavery was brought up almost a hundred years before during the Constitution. It was pushed off until later. The Civil War was later, the feelings towards slavery became so heated that tensions rose and rose until 1861.

by Anonymous 14 years ago

my point was the civil war was not a war on slavery. Yes it was an issue but that is not what started the war nor what the war was actually about. Just like todays war, its technically a war on terrorism but there are a lot of other issues wrapped up in it also. And no the southern states were not part of the union they were the confederacy. hence confederate soldiers and the rebel flag

by Anonymous 14 years ago

Ok, may I ask was the main reason of the war was? If you're saying that if you took slavery out of the equation the south would've still seceded, you're wrong. And of course I know that there was a Confederacy, in your post you said one of the reasons for the the cause of the war was that the Confederacy didn't want to join the Union. You can't join something you're already a part of.

by Anonymous 14 years ago

perhaps I should have worded that differently. They did not want to be a part of the union any longer. You're right in saying they were already part of the union, I can admit when I'm wrong unlike a lot of people on the internet arguing about something that doesn't actually affect anyone in real life. Not to say there's anything wrong with a good internet debate. Just when you take it extremely personal and instead of just logging off you keep feeding fuel to the fire. Anyway that was a unrelated tangent, my point is yes originally they were part of the union and then rebelled and broke off. But I still stand by slavery not being the only reason

by Anonymous 14 years ago

There were other reasons, I agree with you there, but slavery was the main one. In your opinion, what other issues were more important than slavery in starting the war?

by Anonymous 14 years ago

So this is really just an interesting way of saying all parts of America, North and South, were still clearly morally screwed up at that time, since nobody cared about the well being of black people. Amirite? LOL

by Anonymous 14 years ago

Yeah what you're saying about how the northern and southern people is true, but hating individuals because they were black was still racist, and hating the race as a whole, but not as indivduals was still racist... That's kind of the definition.

by Anonymous 14 years ago

No, OP is wrong. both the North and South were extremely racist before, during and after the Civil War.

by Anonymous 14 years ago

My post said that neither was racist, because if the south was racist, then so was the north. It was sort of a if x, then y thing.

by Anonymous 14 years ago

So the moral of the story is.... It sucked being black no matter where you lived! I was taught this theory in APUSH, so I'm not too mad at the OP. Although, I didn't take it to mean that the south wasn't racist. I took it to mean they were all racist. I don't see how anyone could come to a different conclusion. If the OP grandfather hated blacks, then he was a racist. I don't care who was friends with. Racism is thinking another person is inferior to because of their race, and I guarantee you he thought his "BFF" was beneath him.

by Anonymous 14 years ago

Yeah, what I was saying was that blacks really weren't happy anywhere in the country. In the South, they were hated. In the North, they had no white friends. The North was no better and no worse than the South.

by Anonymous 14 years ago

(Samantha+Jane). Because being hated and enslaved isn't any worse then "not having friends"

by Anonymous 14 years ago

Honestly I can not name the reasons off the top of my head. I just know that they didn't like the way Lincoln was running the show. including but not limited to freeing the slaves. Fun fact btw Lincoln himself indeed owned slaves

by Anonymous 14 years ago

Lincoln didn't own slaves; Jefferson did.

by Anonymous 14 years ago

When I saw this I thought you were gonna say something about states' rights...man, was I way off or what?

by Anonymous 14 years ago

lol, you make no sense.

by Anonymous 14 years ago

Just to sum up what everyone is saying here: OP, you're wrong. And, what the fuck.

by Anonymous 14 years ago

i think you live in south carolina.

by Anonymous 14 years ago

You think wrong.

by Anonymous 14 years ago

Wrong carolina. ;)

by Anonymous 14 years ago

So what your saying is that the North wasn't as racist as the South, but people in the North have no black friends? and people that hate black people probably don't have black friends.

by Anonymous 14 years ago

It's like hating a group of people, like goths, but still having one as a friend. It happens.

by Anonymous 14 years ago

Okay people. My great grandfather lived after the civil war, in the late 1800s. What I'm saying is that how he felt about blacks was the same as what many of the southerners thought during the Civil War. And it is totally possible to hate blacks as a race and not want them to have rights but to still have friends who are black.

by Anonymous 14 years ago

(Samantha Jane): He he. Typo: *great-grandfather

by Anonymous 14 years ago

Mexicans!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

by Anonymous 14 years ago

Mexicans!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

by Anonymous 14 years ago