Recent content by mikegriffith1

Do you think the New Zealanders would have been better off under the tender mercies of the Japanese army? Yes, the behavior of those American GIs was sad and inexcusable, but look what happened to local populations that fell under Japanese control: even in the cases of milder Japanese...

Oh, heck, the African slave trade was the major feeder of the Atlantic slave trade and the Muslim slave trade. The Muslims engaged in slave trading on a massive scale, which is one reason I find it odd that so many American blacks think it's cool to have Muslim names.

You would think it would go without saying that factually analyzing the way slavery was administered is not in any way a defense of slavery itself. However, if you present evidence that most slaves were not abused, that "slave breeding" was rare, and that in the majority of cases slaves and...

Yes, the Soviets provided enormous aid to the Chinese Communists, especially after 1945. Stalin approved Mao's proposal to intervene in the Korean War. However, in the late 1950s, Mao began to resist Soviet control, and this caused a rift between the Soviets and Mao. Yet, the Soviets and Red...

The book spends considerable time addressing the "stolen land" narrative and proves it is invalid and is based on gross exaggerations and sometimes outright fiction. However, the stolen-land narrative is now the dominant view in academia, and any sane, factual research that contradicts the...

To follow up on my reply, let's revisit something that JoeB131 said: This argument captures one of the core reasons that neo-Radical historians cannot bring themselves to admit that a relatively small number of slaves (3,000 to 7,000) volunteered to fight for the Confederacy in exchange for...

Slavery was the main reason the seven Deep South states seceded, but the tariff was arguably the second reason they did so.

No, we are missing records for at least 1/3 of the Confederate muster roles. And, again, due to the combat situation and the chronic paper shortage, the Confederate army did not have the time or means to keep the kinds of detailed records that the Union army had the luxury of keeping. BTW...

Actually, the Confederacy began its emancipation program in March 1865, one month before the war ended. Major voices in the South, including Robert E. Lee, supported extending the offer of freedom to the families of slaves who volunteered to serve in the army. Jefferson Davis had already sent a...

The fact that the Confederate government began a program of emancipation is not surprising given the historical record about the Confederates and their motives. As one reads the speeches and letters of Confederate leaders during the war, it becomes apparent that they certainly did not believe...

No, you are mistaken. Of course the likes of Sumner opposed the Kansas-Nebraska Act! Sumner was a rabid Free Soiler and then a Radical Republican, but most Northerners welcomed it. Perhaps that's why it passed the Senate 37-14. Sixteen of the Yes votes were Northern Democrats. You need to get...

More of your juvenile nonsense. The blacks who volunteered to fight for the Confederate army did so in exchange for their freedom. They weren't fighting to "continue their enslavement" but to end it. But you're so clueless and rabid that you can't even get this basic fact right. "Revisionism"...

I finally managed to find a copy of my 2014 article on protective tariffs as a major cause of sectional strife and the Deep South's secession. I have substantially revised and expanded the article and have published it on my Civil War website. The article does not argue that the tariff was the...

It is worth noting that the Morrill Tariff, which Southern heritage defenders condemn, only passed because enough Southern senators resigned from the Senate to give the Republicans a majority. Until then, the tariff bill was going nowhere because Senate Democrats were able to keep it bottled up...

A key fact to keep in mind is that there were very few cases of violence against blacks and few problems of any kind under Lincoln's mild, merciful, and reasonable reconstruction program, a fact that Northern Democrats and moderate Republicans did not hesitate to point out to the Radical...