- Hey, I'm Zora Bikangaga and as a former middle
school history teacher, I still take special
pleasure in clearing up widely-believed
historical misconceptions, like how Napoleon wasn't
really that short...
Or how Vikings didn't actually have horns on
their helmets...
And how George Washington was so obssesed with ice cream
that bought like, this 300-piece serving set
solely dedicated to it.
And ya wonder why your teeth were so bad, Georgie?
Ya wonder?
Okay that's just a fun fact.
And much like 18th century ice cream,
history can be much more palatable when doused with
slave-harvested peaches and cream, am I right,
Thomas Jefferson?
And the recent debate over confederate statues and
monuments has certainly revealed a great deal of
misconceptions about the Civil War itself.
So in order to even have an informed debate about
the present, let's clear up a few
misconceptions about the past...
The most common misconception about the
Civil War is what caused it.
It wasn't just about state's rights or simply
the practice of slavery.
It was particularly caused by the spread of slavery
into the new territories.
So in 1803 Napoleon was like, "Oh (bleep),
"I need more money for this war I'm gonna declare on
"Europe," and sold this huge swath of land to
America known as the Louisiana Purchase.
Thomas Jefferson, who was president at the time was
like, "Dude, we just got this land for like less
"than three cents an acre and literally doubled
"our size overnight.
"Now let's go explore this (bleep) so we can create more
"some more states and displace all these Native Americans."
"#Manifest Destiny."
And that's exactly what they did.
However, this created a dilemma, were these new
states going to be slave states or free states?
Southern slave owners were like, "(bleep) yeah!
"More plantations!
"Woo!"
and abolitionists were like,
"Uhh can we not though?"
And then Congress was like, "Okay,
"let's make a Missouri Compromise.
"No slavery North of the 36 and a half parallel,"
which quelled the problem for a few decades
until slave owners were like, "But can we though?"
and John Brown was like, "(bleep) no,
"Bleeding Kansas, bitches!"
and then a bunch of people died and then in 1857 the
Supreme Court decided that this black dude named Dred Scott
could be a slave in any state because
technically black people weren't real citizens nor
protected by the Constitution,
which was pretty (bleep)ed up...
And all of this created an impossible situation that
a scrappy young candidate named Abraham Lincoln
brilliantly articulated...
"A house divided against itself cannot stand.
"I believe this government cannot endure,
"permanently half-slave and half-free...
"it will become all one thing or all the other."
And then boom, the lanky Illinois boy gets elected
President in 1860, and even though he thought
slavery was morally wrong, Lincoln stated in his
first inaugural address that he had no intention
on abolishing slavery where it was already
practiced, but southern slave owners were still
like, "Yeah but he won't let us practice it
wherever we want, secession!"
And that is how the Civil War started.
So now that we fully understand how it started and cause,
let's dispel another myth which has to do with
Confederate soldiers.
Confederate soldiers definitely fought for slavery.
However, many of them were poor white men who didn't
even own slaves.
Nevertheless, having slaves was an obvious sign
of southern prosperity and something to which poor
whites aspired.
Also, keeping slavery maintained a social order
in which they were not at the bottom.
The mere idea being equal to blacks and having to
compete with them for jobs was a strong incentive for
white southerners to fight,
and Confederate generals certainly exploited that.
And speaking of Confederate generals,
let us also dispel another myth, and this is
one of the biggest ones of all,
and that is the legacy of General Robert E. Lee,
who historians have painted as noble Virginian
who opposed slavery yet fought valiantly for the
just cause of state's rights,
which is simply inaccurate.
Yes, he was a highly competent war general who
was well-respected by his men.
But he also owned a ton of slaves,
and the reason why he's been depicted as
anti-slavery is mainly because of a misquoted
letter he wrote.
Yes, he did say that slavery was
"A moral and political evil," but he also went on to say,
"Blacks are immeasurably better off here than in
"Africa, morally, socially, and physically.
"The painful discipline they are undergoing is
"necessary for their nstruction as a race..."
Yeah, real better off, dude.
I totally wish my Ugandan ancestors were enslaved
here in America instead of chillin' by one of the
most beautiful lakes in the world eating delicious
fruits and vegetables, #blessed.
But Robert E. Lee's twisted logic
justified his own cruel treatment of his slaves.
Another fun fact, General Lee's
father-in-law was George Washington's adopted
grandson, George Washington Parke Custis.
When Custis died, Lee inherited all his slaves,
who claimed that Custis agreed to free them upon
his death, however, Lee refused.
When a few of the slaves tried to escape and were
captured, Lee had them savagely whipped, and
then just to make an example of them,
poured brine on their wounds.
Okay, but George Washington and Thomas Jefferson also
had slaves and did (bleep)ed up things
and we still honor them with statues, right?
Here's the difference, Confederate icons like
Robert E. Lee, Stonewall Jackson, and Jefferson Davis chose
region over country and went to war against
the United States, an act that resulted in the deaths of
over 620,000 Americans.
The loss of life on both sides was tragic, but
make no mistake, the Confederacy committed
treason, and you don't build statues and name
highways after traitors.
You put that (bleep) in a museum and you tell the truth,
#TakeDownThose(bleep)ingStatues.
Indeed, history is written by the victors, well,
not exactly.
This last misconception has to do with a
propaganda campaign that occurred after
the Civil War that helped justify Jim Crow laws
that disenfranchised freed blacks in the South,
a myth that became popular throughout America during
the 20th century and still creeps up in textbooks every
now and then.
This myth is known as The Cult of The Lost Cause.
Gone With the Wind.
Disney's Song of the South.
Those weird Dixie Crystal sugar packets.
All of these perpetuate an overly nostalgic view of
the Antebellum Era without acknowledging the
injustices which propped up that leisurely lifestyle.
It also supported the institution of racial
segregation that was pervasive not only in the
South, but everywhere in America for the next 88 years.
And believe it or not, a huge proponent of
the Lost Cause Myth was a northern-born history
professor at Columbia University named
William Archibald Dunning, whadya know,
a gadddamn Yankee!
Known as the Dunning School,
this professor influenced a whole generation of
historians who viewed the Civil War as a
War of Northern Aggression, saw freed blacks as unfit to
vote and integrate into white society,
and portrayed the Confederacy as martyrs for
the cause of state's rights.
As racial violence intensified during the
late 1800's and early 20th century with the rise of
the Klu Klux Klan, so did the construction of
confederate statues and monuments led by Lost Causers.
Even the Confederate battle flag reemerged
after World War Two as a symbol used by southern
Dixiecrats who opposed the emerging Civil Rights
Movement and desegregation.
And it took until 2015 and a national tragedy for the
South Carolina tate Capitol to finally take
down the rebel flag, good job guys!
And even though the Lost Cause Myth has been slowly
weeded out of the historical narrative over
the past 30 years, one can still see its remnants in
obtusely-written textbooks and naive millennials who
for some reason are still having
plantation-themed weddings.
Like why!?
Look, I get it.
It's southern heritage.
So if you really want to keep Confederate statues
and monuments in public then let's be fair,
we should also include other traitors like Benedict Arnold,
Julius Rosenberg, and Peter Pettigrew,
Boom, got him!
#AllThingsRelateToHarryPotter