- 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
Good video