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rfmcdonaldAny number of people on Facebook reminded me that, in addition to being the 50th anniversary of Yuri Gagarin's flight, it's also the 150th anniversary of the beginning of the American Civil War with the bombardment of South Carolina's Fort Sumter by the forces of the Confederacy.
What can I say about it but that I'm glad the Union survived intact and the slavers of the Confederacy were stripped of their human property? British North America, having seen the end of slavery in 1833 along with the rest of the British Empire and become an important destination for African-Americans fleeing slavery via the Underground Railroad, hypocritically also felt a certain sympathy for the Confederacy inasmuch as a fragmented Union would be a less threatening Union. This isn't something I'm proud of.
The post-war hostility of the Union towards British North America did at least encourage the federation of the British North American colonies into the Dominion of Canada. In a very real sense, Canada became a country because the Confederacy failed in its effort at nationhood. Would it be too odd to be glad that something else good apart from the liberation of the slaves came from the terrible bloodletting?
What can I say about it but that I'm glad the Union survived intact and the slavers of the Confederacy were stripped of their human property? British North America, having seen the end of slavery in 1833 along with the rest of the British Empire and become an important destination for African-Americans fleeing slavery via the Underground Railroad, hypocritically also felt a certain sympathy for the Confederacy inasmuch as a fragmented Union would be a less threatening Union. This isn't something I'm proud of.
The post-war hostility of the Union towards British North America did at least encourage the federation of the British North American colonies into the Dominion of Canada. In a very real sense, Canada became a country because the Confederacy failed in its effort at nationhood. Would it be too odd to be glad that something else good apart from the liberation of the slaves came from the terrible bloodletting?
