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The common narrative of the Civil War for white Americans is one of tragedy, bloodshed, and brother-against brother, which is narrative purposefully created to allow for reconciliation between whites. Black people do not factor into this, because: how could a war to end slavery be tragic? (Sophia)
The Civil War has often been seen as a White mans war, which is interesting because there were thousands of black soldiers and free black northerners affected by the war. Most importantly: the war ended slavery, which makes the Civil War most influential for black Americans. (Sophia)
Many white people in the country still think honorably about their ancestors who fought for the Confederacy as men who wouldn’t sit by as the national government tried to influence their lives. White Americans with northern ancestors think of themselves as blameless for slavery, which ignores the decades of appeasement of slave owners and profits born on the backs of enslaved people. (Sophia)
The truth of the Civil War was that one group of Americans tried to begin a country based on enslaving black people and another group of Americans, including black people, stopped them, says Coates. This is a cut and dry manner of viewing the Civil War, but the simplicity leaves no room for being apologetic to enslavers and traitors.(Sarah M)
Although the Union won the Civil War, the symbols and attitudes of the Confederacy, “the empire of slavery,” continue to exist. These symbols, especially Confederate flags, endure as representations of “freedom” and “patriotism” amongst those who display it, despite being meaning quite the opposite.(Sarah M)
The memory of the Civil War is most often centered on the reconciliation between white people of the North and South. It is portrayed as a “tragedy” that somehow freed the enslaved people, but does not allow the legacy to belong to them. The legacy appears to belong to white people and re-enactors. These groups focus on every aspect of the Civil War, it seems, except those relating to the role of black people and slavery. (Sarah M)
Black individuals' perceptions of the Civil War differed from white individuals' in terms of the way they thought of its legacy. Their sense of the war was that it was a tragedy that only happened to free the enslaved people. The legacy belonged, says Coates, to the sort of people who reminisced fondly about the time in which Black individuals were enslaved, whether or not they would say they supported slavery. (Ezra C)
Almost immediately after the war, Confederates started obfuscating the real cause of the Civil War by erasing Black individuals from the record. They justified secession as a response to Lincoln's radicalism as opposed to being a tool the South used to attempt to continue holding people as property. (Ezra C)
For the Black community, learning about the Civil War means primarily learning about how white people painted themselves as the main political actors, with Black people only being stock characters or historical figures who were merely acted upon and not actors in their own right. They could learn about it but never truly join the narrative, so many choose not to learn about it. (Ezra C)
Coates makes the point that Confederates changed the terms of the war after the total ideological defeat that took place. He points to writings from before and after the war of Davis and Stephens, first outlining slavery as the cause, and then repenting once they’ve lost. This legacy was then memorialized through stories told and retold through generations that skew perspectives on what the war accomplished. - Ewan H
Coates calls back to Blight’s conversation of Civil War memory in regards to Woodrow Wilson’s 50th anniversary speech at Gettysburg, and how he mentioned nothing of slavery. Coates points to Wilson’s upbringing in the South and blatant racist policies for his obtuseness, executing what Coates deemed “a familiar act of theater.” - Ewan H
Coates reflects on popular writings about the Civil War, one of which detailing that the gruesomeness and lives lost was so bad that generations would have to pass before fully justifying the impact. This point only reflects the white narrative, and fails to consider the insanely monumental impact on black people the Civil War had, freeing them from slavery, giving them citizenship and the right to vote. - Ewan H