The Civil War was not primarily about freeing slaves.

War of Northern Aggression.

Confederate States "You do not have Constitutional authority to override State Law, see the 10th Amendment. Thank you, we are done here."

Northern States (Union) "You're not going anywhere B_TCH!"

Thank you! My Great-Great Grandfather was a Union soldier. He was a Republican and believed slavery should be abolished. He was severely wounded at the Battle of Gettysburg and sent home to heal. He could have asked for a medical discharge, but he chose to rejoin his unit and finish out the war.

There was a time when reparations might have been appropriate. But, that was when the people who were actually enslaved were still alive. Black people alive today could have a valid complaint against the U.S. Government, but it isn’t rooted in the days of slavery.

What black people today should be focused on are the empty promises and damaging effects the Great Society had on them as a group. They should be demanding to know where the $23 trillion went that was supposedly spent in the War on Poverty. They should be asking why their inner city communities are worse off today than they were five or six decades ago.

I also believe slavery wasn’t what they said it was.

Food stamps and welfare have paid reparations a thousand times over. Blacks make up 13% of the population, but make up the same percentage as whites do when you look at EBT recipients by race. Meaning they are more than DOUBLY overrepresented in government assistance - and that is just what is officially reported.

The standard answer is, I have never owned a slave and You have never been a slave. SO I Owe you nothing.

Let's discuss the idea of reparations + their own independent nation in Africa. Dems would probably see it as progressive which would be good for us.

Lincoln didn't care about freeing black slaves. This is why his Emancipation Proclamation only freed slaves in the South. This is why the Underground Railroad ended in Canada and not Pennsylvania. Lincoln was a high-tariff President, proven by his own words and especially the Morrill Bill. This is why he only proposed freeing any slaves after the Union had lost several key battles in the war. In newspapers of the day, Lincoln's move to free slaves was knows as his "last card" to save his reelection. It was mostly about profit and power, as with most things.

It was toxic white supremacy that put an end to the evils of slavery in the USA.

Lincoln’s version of preserving the union was all about maintaining the flow of money to keep the federal government in a position of power. After all, the South provided the funding via tariffs for 80% of the Federal budget. Without the South, the Federal government would be insolvent. He did not run for office on the premise of freeing the slaves. He did say he wanted to insure any new territory that was accepted for statehood would not be a slave bearing state. This meant any slave owner could not move from a slave state to a free state and take his slaves with him. So slavery was a part of it, but the main driver was the South was tired of being held in bondage being the primary funder to a Federal government from which they received little to no benefit. The Emancipation Proclamation is a very well written, very short document that was not written until two years after the start of the War. Union losses up to that point were significant and Lincoln was on the road to failure and a likely failed re-election. He needed a rallying call to market himself and justify what had become an unpopular war. Slavery fit the bill.

Thank you! I’ve been saying this for years! What about reparations for the dependents of all the soldiers that died in the war fighting to free slaves?

It was-the times in history occurred and though we never know the issues created by one man owning another. It was the times. You can disagree with the old times of that era, today. But, you can’t change it or pay for it. It was the times.

According to many historians, the loss of life of soldiers in the Civil war was closer to 800,000 WHITE AMERICANS. That does not count the loss of homes & farms burnt down, domestic farm animals slaughtered, family wealth and treasure confiscated, and...

THE MOST IMPORTANT SACRIFICE OF ALL -

THE COMPLETE DECIMATION OF THEIR FAMILY'S FUTURE OFFSPRING of the deceased's MALE LINEAGE, which if the war had not occurred, the number of White descendants in the U.S. would be millions more and the number of immigrants would be much less now, because they would not have been needed.

REPARATIONS? Should be given from the Blacks to the WHITE descendants of the families who lost all of their men to death, injury or disease during the bloodiest war.

250,000 Union soldiers died to create an American empire out of a voluntary union.

Before the war, a state could join or leave the union at will.

After the war, it was a single centralized federal government and the states couldn't do shit.

600,000+ total on both sides and civilians….start the reparations with them. Then we we talk about all the others afterwards.

I once read a quote, purportedly from the first Confederate Vice President, saying that keeping their slaves was the "primary reason" for the secession.

Of course, the person quoting him was a leftist, so who knows if it was real. I wish I could find the comment again.

Roughly 2 trillion dollars, at the FEMA "value" of a human life (7.5mil as of 2020) and that's only considering Union losses.

As I vaguely recall, the freed slaves were given a donkey and a plot of land. That would have been reparations to those who were slaves from those who were at least alive at that time. Maybe it came from the south. I don't remember that part.