Politically Correct History Abolitionist Terrorism and Legislative Tyranny Remembered as Virtue

Via Mike

On the slavery issue, Lincoln and most Northerners, like most Southerners, thought emancipation should be gradual, just as it had been in the North. However, neither Lincoln nor most Northern whites had very sympathetic attitudes toward blacks. Moreover, Northerners actually feared that emancipated Southern slaves might emigrate to the North. Only a tiny minority of radical abolitionists wanted an immediate end to slavery, which disregarded the economic consequences to the South and the freed slaves.

 The abolitionists, although representing less than two percent of the Northern population, did have a tremendous impact on Southern thinking. The Free State versus Slave State Controversy erupted into border warfare between Missouri and Kansas in the 1850’s. Missouri came into the Union as a Slave State. Approximately 80 percent of its people were of Southern origin. Not many Missourians owned slaves, but they were sympathetic to the South and were of conservative Democrat political persuasion. The North hoped to make Kansas a Free State, and New England abolitionists encouraged emigration there to secure Northern Republican domination. Many Southerners, however, also desired to take advantage of new land opportunities in Kansas. The result was “bleeding Kansas,” where there was frequent armed conflict between Northern immigrants and Southern immigrants from Missouri. Southern sympathizers in Missouri began to engage in reprisals for injustices to Missouri settlers in Kansas, and bands of Kansas “Jayhawkers” or “Redlegs” began to raid, burn, loot, and kill in Missouri. Missouri raiders responded by sacking the Northern abolitionist stronghold of Lawrence, Kansas in 1856.

More @ The Tribune