Guess what, though? If you lived in, say, Pennsylvania and wore cotton clothing, or ate rice, you enjoyed the fruits of slave labor too. Or if you owned a textile mill in New York and bought your cotton from Alabama, you not only enjoyed the fruits of slave labor but DEPENDED on it for your own livelihood! There were a lot more people besides Southerners that depended on cheap labor to make a living. You think they were going to give it up that easily?

Not to mention the fact that there were plenty of factory riots in New York City because the white immigrants didn't want freedmen coming up there and taking their jobs.

Not to mention the fact that Frederick Douglass himself said the worst racism he ever encountered was in the North.

Not to mention the fact that early on in the war, Union officers had "contrabands" sent back to their "owners." Sherman found the tagalongs a nuisance and a hindrance.

Not to mention the fact that "abolition" did not mean "socioeconomic equality." It wasn't as if runaway or freed slaves had rights the minute they crossed the Mason-Dixon line. They didn't. Maybe they were free in the sense of not being someone's property, but they were not free in the sense of being able to do as they pleased.

Personally I am tired of being the Bad Guy just because of where I'm from. But like I said, history is written by the victors, and We Lost.

I'm going home for the weekend now. Y'all have a happy Easter.

Cheers ----- Kim