Feeling guilty for something you never did 150 years ago has to be a sign of mental illness. According to the 1860 census, we know that because counting slaves as 3/5 of a man, it made it possible for them to be counted at all rather than be unnumbered, that there were about 3,000,000 slaves in the slave states which had a population of 12,000,000. The average slave owner had 20 slaves, which means there were only somewhere around 600,000 slave owners out of 31 million American citizens. Frederick Douglas said the 3/5ths compromise was one of the most brilliant parts of the Constitution because it slanted everything to freedom. It gave the people repulsed by slavery greater political power over those states that supported slavery, and for purposes of seats in Congress wanted to count slaves (un-free people) as citizens. Rather than be in awe that 19 million citizens would see fit to go to war against what amounted to 600,000 people to finally end slavery, self flagelation is supposed to make it all better. One Union Soldier died to free 12 slaves, and their sacrifice is dismissed. Hundreds of thousands were maimed and crippled, many finding it impossible to continue in their farms and businesses and families lost everything to live in poverty. Thank them for the moral courage? No, everyone has to be guilty.
If I'm proud of my great-great grandfather for deserting the Confederates after he was drafted and joining the Union Army to fight for the side he believed in, I'm a white supremecist and racist. If I am humbled by the fact that his injuries bankrupt his family and they lived in abject poverty, I am somehow still guilty of white privilege. Not everyone got rich by slavery. Great post, thanks.
