What if the Confederacy had won the War?

[milhistbuff1]

Sam, I couldn't agree more. The only exception is that the divisions would be social and political, not necessarily ethnic.
Respectfully,
Matt

[olerebel]

Matt, your reference to slaves being flogged at the whim of the master shows your ignorance of Southern history. At the time I am referring to, women, white women of means were not allowed to vote, or have a voice in the government. Of course servants/slaves were denied these rights.

Today I own several horses, cows, dogs, cats, two boys and a wife. I have whipped the dogs for going to the public road, and the boys for disobeying me. There is no need to whip the cows, cats or woman: they are going to do what cows, cats and women do.(But the cats are not likely to go see a lawyer.) My horses were gentle broke, and have never acted up. If they do, I'll sell them down the river. Neither I nor anyone else who owns critters beats them without a reason. A person must earn a critter's trust, the same as another person's, whether that person be a servant or a master. I have tractors that can do the work of 50 slaves in a day. I have no need for slaves. I don't have to feed tractors when they are sitting under a shed during the winter, I would have to feed slaves. Thus it has been since the advent of the steam traction unit.
By law a slave owner was required to care for his charges, even when they were too old to work. I have wondered many times what was to become of the slaves on a plantation of 100+ slaves when they were too old to work, and too old to sell...... but of course the WBTS took care of that.

[samgrant]

Originally Posted by olerebel

Today I own several horses, cows, dogs, cats, two boys and a wife. I have whipped the dogs for going to the public road, and the boys for disobeying me.

What type of whip do you prefer?

[matthew mckeon]

olerebel,
Are you for real?

[johan_steele]

OleRebel: Just as a note, my grandfather was still using horsepower in the fields well into the 1940's and even still in the 50's... He was often considered one of the more succesful farmers in the area. So are you saying the wide use of the traction or the I.C. Engine would have been what it took to eliminate slavery? If so you are saying slavery would have still been in wide use well into the 1950's. Of coarse someone still has to care for the horses or cattle on the plantation, drive the tractors to maintain the crops etc. Which could easily have kept slavery solvent for the forseeable future which is what I've been saying for quite some time...

In reference specifically to post #92. The English had a saying that went something like this: "The dog the walnut tree and the woman all three do better when whipped." In other words some people do not treat their wives, horses or anything else correctly... in any way shape or form. It's true today and it was true in the 19th Century. There were many slaves that were well treated by responsible masters. There are stories of men and women who someone decided had skin dark enough to be a quadroon being yanked from their homes and sent into slavery as escaped slaves... Many is the story of men, women & children being sold away from their families... and of coarse my absolute favorite was Cobbs Plantation and the effect the devices intended to punish slaves had on the Union troops that saw it... Cobbs plantation was not a unique place.

Allow me to illustrate some: A blanket to be placed over the tree branch to which a slave was tied while being whipped. The purpose of the blanket? To protect the tree from being damaged by the rope suspending the slave.

Whips including cat of nine tails w/ a fish hook woven into the end of each tail.

A special device, at first glance a modified sawhorse. A "legbreaker;" when a slave ran away and was caught his/her leg was broken. When it was healed... it was broken again to drive home the lesson.

Dogs trained to hunt down and bring down people, slaves in particular. Trained so well that they would hold on until the command was given to let go. Is it any wonder the K-9 population in Georgia & SC was adversely effected.

I could go on but I have just eaten and have no real want to convict every slave owner of such viciousness as certainly not all were guilty.

Did the WBTS take care of aged slaves prior to 1860? A slave owner might allow a slave to keep enough aside that by the time they were 60-70 they might buy their own freedom. Very convenient.

By law a slave owner was required to care for his slaves... just as a question, how many people regularly exceed the speed limit where you're at? The law has to be enforced for it to be effective, and the word of an abused slave vs a white landowner... you know as well as I do how that would have come out. In short slavery was far from benevolant, no matter how one looks at it.

As I've said before w/out a agricultural disaster of truly biblical proportions there was just no economic, cultural or moral incentive to eliminate slavery in the CS. If you think I'm wrong, look at how many people on this board alone still defend the institution. A year or so ago we even had a misguided youth who defended the institution as "not that bad"... IIRC very few from the other side of the aisle were quick to educate him.

[whitworth]

Probably another war, if the first peace were negotiated in 1861. The Confederacy was too big a thorne and too big and ambitious.
With their cotton, slaves and arrogance, a struggle for the U.S. territories would have caused a war.