British Guy Reacts to AMERICAN CIVIL WAR Oversimplified - 'I DIDN'T EXPECT THAT!'
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- เผยแพร่เมื่อ 9 ก.ย. 2021
- ORIGIONAL VIDEO: • The American Civil War...
INSTAGRAM: / jbickertonuk
I react to The American Civil War - OverSimplified (Part 1), which covers the war from the Confederate declaration of independence and attack on Fort Sumter to the emancipation of the slaves. Hope you enjoy! - บันเทิง
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Thanks for watching! I hope you enjoyed :)
You may well hope never to be troubled by me again, in which case I entirely understand and sympathise. However if, for some strange reason, you want more of me in your life, here are my social media accounts:
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Cheers!
Cheers...from a 75 year-old American woman!!
Mormons were opposed to slavery, coming from a staunchly Northern culture and heavily influenced as a group by Welsh and German immigrants with strong beliefs in liberty and individual responsibility. However, under the Spanish, the Ute nation had regularly raided neighboring native nations to sell into slavery in Spanish held California. Other native nations also raided the Ute and Paiute nations to sell as slaves to the Spanish.
@@kennethslayor8177 Yet, Mormons believed that God had cursed the African people, and that is why their skin was dark/black... Many of my ancestors were LDS...
Lincoln arrested the elected representatives of Maryland, and appointed new ones in order to prevent the state for seceding with the rest of the South. As it was, half of the capitol of the US was in enemy territory. If Maryland had managed to secede then the entirety of the nations capitol would have been behind enemy lines.
@@kennethslayor8177 Your posts are great! 👍🏻Thank you!
I am sure that someone has said this, but it bears repeating.
When you start studying the American Civil War, you think that it is about slavery.
But then you start, and you discover that it was about Economics and State Rights.
But, as you learn more, you discover that it was really about Slavery all along.
Damn I read this and was really worried for a sec😂
Maybe the real slavery were the friends we made along the way
@@joelinbrown9792 Same. 🤣
"iT wAs AbOuT sTaTeAS rIgHtS"
"a states right to do what?"
The US Civil War like many wars was a complicate mess of conflicting interests and motivations and like most wars many people today only focus on the largest issue without looking any further into the nuances and missing a lot of the more interesting detials (That or they will purposefully ignore one or more of the larger issues for short term political gain). Kind of like how everyone remembers WWII as being entirely about Hitler wanting to kill all of the Jews, only barely remembering Japan because of Perl Harbor and Hiroshima, and never remembering Italy fought in the war at all....ok, maybe forgetting Italy is kinda fair. :P
I love the moment he realizes how close the capitals were to each other. Richmond and Washington DC are about 110 miles apart. In British terms: it would be like having London face off against Birmingham
Also adding to the tension, Washington and Maryland (which surrounded it to the north and east) were torn on slavery. Like the video mentioned, Baltimore hated Lincoln because their mercantile class profited from slavery, so there was a riot there. The MD legislature only narrowly voted to remain in the union, and to abolish slavery (with some federal pressure). In a way it must have felt like commanding the North from behind enemy lines.
I live near an old rail bridge in a town named Elkridge that was guarded by federal troops to avoid it being sabotaged and cutting off Washington from northern reinforcements. There is also a circlet of fort remains you can see if you walk around the outer neighborhoods of DC.
@@sebastianjoseph2828 in 1861 the Maryland legislature voted against secession 53-13. You have a broad definition of "narrow."
Maryland secessionists were loud and violent, but not particularly numerous. Several thousand Marylanders went south to fight for the Confederacy, including Franklin Buchanan (commander of the CSS Virginia, the first ironclad steamship to see combat) and Charles Marshall (one of Lee's staff officers, who I got to play in the Appomattox Courthouse visitors' center video), but a lot more fought for the Union.
In 1864 Maryland had a referendum on a new constitution abolishing slavery in the state. Voters approved the document 30,174 to 29,799.
@@gregoryeatroff8608 Thank you for the correction. I remembered a narrow vote margin, and I guess that was for abolition not for secession.
@@gregoryeatroff8608 that’s after a lot of southerners were jailed and they surioynded baltimore with guns
@@nephite467 Wrong. Learn history.
"Fredrick Douglas sounds like an interesting guy"
You have no idea. He's awesome, look into him sometime.
Frederick Douglass, and yes, both British Guy, and, embarrassingly and sadly, our former president the orange idiot, would do well to look into him.
@@nooneofconsequence1251 Love how you keep bringing up the “orange idiot” when
A. He’s no longer President, so get over it.
B. He’s not a racist, I challenge to find a single quotation from the man himself during his presidency that would imply he’s a racist.
C. You’re gonna imply he’s a racist yet ignore who’s the current standing president right now. (I’ll gladly provide 5 quotations from Biden himself that confirms it if you would like)
D. I actually challenge you to come up with three positive benefits this nation has had ever since Biden took office.
Both of you shut up nobody cares anymore this is literally a reaction video
@@Cowman-gr2qf it's an amusing and factual bit of history relevant to the reaction video that Donald Trump also had no idea who Frederick Douglass was. I'm sure to an international audience, that would be interesting and surprising to discover. Also you are perpetuating the conversation, so... you think people care that you don't care?
@@Cowman-gr2qf cow man based
That caning actually left that senator with traumatic brain injury, which resulted in chronic pain for his entire life, and he also suffered PTSD. The guy seriously intended to kill him. Like he broke the cane, you can imagine how hard he was beating him.
Most of the Native Tribes, The 5 "Civilised", tribes had been moved to Oklahoma at this point in US history, most sided with the South and fought the Union because they also had slaves. (See the Black Cherokee) After the War, the US considered the tribes siding with the South to have voided their treaties with the US government. It is the start of the period of time when the federal government begins to take their land away from them for a second time.
Not all Native tribes had slaves first off. Secondly, Yes many in the south fought or aided the Confederacy, because of what the Confederacy offered our ancestors. Not because their ideals, but alot of it was a promise of land to call our own and live on. My people the Alabama-Coushatta our ancestor fought with Confederacy for that very reason. There were a couple other tribes of Texas, Like the Alabama-Coushatta that "won" their "land" in Texas because of our aid in the Texas Revolution.
@@talisredstar1543 Yeah same with some Cherokee. They all got burnt by the US government and joined together. I highly recommend the a movie called The Outlaw Josey Wales
@@york7201 i might check it out for entertainment, but not for education.
@@talisredstar1543 as you should. Movies are never a good way of being educated. Especially not in today's political climate.
@@york7201 That's a bad ass fucking movie. Hell yeah.
Fun fact: Ulysses wasn’t grants first name. His name was Hiram Ulysses Grant which he hated since the initials spell HUG. So when a mistake was made on his West Point forms he just went with it- the S in Ulysses S Grant doesn’t stand for anything.
The S was there for Simpson, his mother's maiden name, I believe.
@@nooneofconsequence1251 No. It was a misnaming by a benefactor who got him enrolled into West Point as a favor to Grant’s father. He was noted in the rolls as Cadet U.S. Grant. The man who spoke for him didn’t know him and thus got his name wrong. The only benefit it had was he gained the nickname Sam, being that his new initials were U.S. and they equated him with Uncle Sam. Grant was happy to keep the name Ulysses, even using it as a youth as he was not fond of Hiram. He could have argued that the roll was incorrect and have it changed, but that would have required him to refuse the appointment to West Point and accept a corrected appointment the following year. In a letter to his future wife, Grant even advised her to “Find some name beginning with S for me. You know I have an S in my name and don’t know what it stands for.” Later, after Ulysses Jr was born, he wrote to Julia in a letter dated 3/31/1853, “What does the S stand for in Ulys’s name? In mine you know it does not stand for anything!”
Sus
@@NmDPlm31 so what did the S stand for? And don't say nothing, that's not the right answer. It was for Simpson.
I woulda kept the initials HUG
Grant was also a US president, he was the second president after Lincoln.
Yep.
I did not know that
In a way, his administration was a victim of his success. The proliferation of industry that had occurred as part of the war effort created enormous new wealth that led to unprecedented corruption in the federal government afterward, as a result of which he was considered a pretty bad president, though historical re-appraisal of the continuation of Reconstruction has somewhat elevated his legacy in that regard.
@@SamAronow
Grant was innocent of corruption, too naive to see it in those he knew.
He steadfastly supported the rights of former slaves to vote and hold office and destroyed the original Klan.
His mixed accomplishments as President were turned into utter failure by the Lost Cause liars.
@@kmaher1424 Oh, I agree. But I think his naïvety indicates just how unprepared the political world was for those changes.
“I don’t know who Sherman was or why he marched to the sea”
*Southerner shakes his head and cries a single tear*
Went down, down, down and the flames went higher
@@zergonomic1821 ...”And it burns, burns, burns...that ring of fire...that ring of fire...”
Thank you for so many great songs, Johnny Cash!!
You’re starting out with more information than the other British TH-camrs had on the American Civil War before reacting to this video! They generally hadn’t heard of the Gettysburg Address, Fort Sumter, or Sherman
@callmecatalyst quit procrastinating and get back to work on your thesis paper :p
@callmecatalyst ...Excellent post! Not all Americans are as well versed or knowledgeable about OUR OWN HISTORY as you, a Brit!! Thank you!! ❤️🇺🇸💝
"If I could save the Union without freeing any slave I would do it, and if I could save it by freeing all the slaves I would do it; and if I could save it by freeing some and leaving others alone, I would also do that."
-Abraham Lincoln
he was a very fair guy
Don’t sweat the interjections, I really like when react TH-camrs pause the video and share how new information challenge the previous preconceptions
Fun Fact, the Mexican-American War was primarily pushed by the parties who would go one to found the Confederacy. The Northern States were the ones who pushed back against those who wanted to annex the whole country because one of the primary pushers for the war were Southerners who wanted to expanded slavery into Mexico who, given the history of enslavement to the Spanish, did not practice slavery.
Though admittedly there were some weird pseudo-serfdom policies in Mexico that might as well have been slavery in all but name, slavery was officially illegal. Places like Texas were fairly racially mixed between Mexicans who distrusted their federal government and American migrants and fought for independence together, only for the Mexicans to get the short end of the stick when one of the conditions for becoming a US state was slavery suddenly becoming legal leading to plantation owners getting all the land contracts.
If not for the Gold Rush, California probably would have become a slave state. As it was, the Pico Brothers lobbied hard to split off the south to form its own state with Los Angeles as its capital.
Firstly, I love hearing someone who isn’t American react to this. Secondly, the lack of political slander/angry screaming in the comments has restored my faith in humanity. Thirdly, I have bullets and metal trinkets from the Battle of Shiloh. Fourthly, I am subscribed now. Keep doing you.
In regards to Lincoln's official policies in regards to slavery vs his personal beliefs. The north was not universally in support of abolition, but from his letters he was, so he was having to do normal political speaking where he had to claim a more moderate position so that he could even get in office to start with.
The division between north and south was definitely brought by Slavery, especially for the south. It is not true, however, that soldiers fought primarily for the cause of Slavery, it was to protect the Union and to defend our way of life.
The only light there was at night was moonlight. Lincoln is making this point: The witness said he could readily verify that he had seen the defendant because there was a full moon that night. Lincoln shows there was no full moon that night, and thus, the witness could not have seen anything, let alone the defendant.
3:20 Yeah but the point of that story is even if the guy on stand was legitimately not remembering if the moon was full, he still shouldn’t be able to identify that other person because there was an actual dim moon that night.
I believe McClellan was the recipient of Lincoln's "hey if you're not doing anything with my army can I have it back?" letter. (But Lincoln cycled through so many useless generals that I don't remember for certain. XD)
One of the best detailed treatments of the Civil War is "The Civil War" by Ken Burns. It's a mulit-part history of the war that will tell you all you need to know, if you have an interest. It was shown in Britain many years ago on the BBC. Here's a short 4-minute trailer for it: th-cam.com/video/Y7HmBmWz9mI/w-d-xo.html
New Mexico and Utah were not yet states during the Civil War. They were territories, and the Oversimplified video is saying that they had the right to vote to accept slavery if that is what they preferred. They were not slave territories. But battles were fought in those territories by Union and Confederate troops trying to gain control over them.
The Underground Railroad wasn't actually a railroad, as you know. It was a series of pathways from the south to the north that escaped slaves followed to get to freedom in the northern US or Canada. There were "stations" along the way, hiding places where escaped slaves could stop and rest and get food. There were also "conductors," both black and white people who helped the escaped slaves along the trails and waterways that they followed.And by the way, for many abolitionists, it was not an economic issues. It was a moral issue.
Yes, for Lincoln saving the Union was the top priority.
There is a fascinating book series written by Harry Turtledove that explores the idea of what if the South had won the civil war. It's 11 books long and it goes from the 1880's to the 1940's. The Confederacy exists mainly due to the intervention of the UK and France. When WWI comes along, the Confederacy is allied with England and France, while the United States allies with Imperial Germany. World history is radically different. It's an amazing read, but events in England are in the background. The closest any of the characters in the books get is liberating Ireland from England.
I wasn’t really listening too much until I heard the “say goodbye to your family bit”, then I made sure I clicked the right video, and rewatched the beginning.
You know what a side burn is? it is the what Gen A. Burnside had, and have you ever gotten a hooker, that is names after Gen J. Hooker because he sure have had a dozen hookers with him.
The Confederacy did have a small navy of raiders, primarily kitted out by the British. In fact, after the war there was some sentiment in Congress that the US should demand concessions from Britain for the damage the Confederate navy did and their failure to remain neutral in the conflict, and among those concessions would have been turning over some Canadian territory to the US. But those demands were never formally approved or officially issued.
Actually, the British paid us a lot of money after the war.
If you can access it (in the US on Amazon Prime it costs about $10US), the 2012 film "Lincoln" with Daniel Day Lewis in the title role is definitely worth watching. it is for the most part accurate. Some liberties are taken for dramatic effect, like showing Mary Lincoln and her seamstress, former slave Eiizabeth Keckley watching the debate in the House gallery.
I had a History Class - Assassinations in American History in College - Professor was Thomas Turner - one of the consultants for the movie.
Its in netflix as well i think.
If you ever make your way to DC, go to Arlington Cemetary and take the tour of Robert E. Lee's house. I think it will talk more about this in part two, but both sides actually wanted Lee as their commanding general. Lee was torn between his country and his home in Virginia and unfortunately, he made the wrong choice. The Union buried many soldiers on the lands near his home so after the war if he ever returned he would forever be in shame of the choice he had made. It's pretty massive. It's also where the Tomb of the Unknown Soldiers is. Seeing the changing of the guard at the tomb is one of the best experiences in DC. Honestly just go to DC if you get the chance. It's like no other city in the world. My top 3 places to see would be Arlington Cemetary, Ford's Theatre, and the Holocaust museum which was probably the most profound and sad place I've ever been.
I’m glad to see this comment. Everything you said is 100% correct. But one fact changed. When the first Union soldiers were buried on Lee’s property it was initially true It was done to shame him. But once Arlington had been declared a national cemetery the land was confiscated by the government. Lee had lost ownership before the war ended so he never returned.
That’s why despite him fighting for the south no one can deny he was a brilliant general..
@@thewiseoldherper7047 Worth noting that the Supreme Court later ruled that the property had been illegally seized, and was returned to Lee's heir. He eventually sold it back to the government.
@@0knox I think they were just compensated. Because his house become quite a important place after that.
He didn’t make the wrong choice, he wanted to fight for his home. There’s nothing wrong with having loyalty
As far as the south having greater military leaders go, it's all cultural. like today, the south was extremely more rural leading to a majority of the youth being trained in weapons and foresting at early ages. The cultural differences between the north and south lead to the southerners having a way more personal element of participation in the Mexican-American War; they fought the war and the Northerners supplied them.
That is actually not true thou, looking at a general point of view. Many war historians think that from the data, if the south just defended the very boarder they had, they would have won independence, so there really was a lot of over aggressive mistakes committed by the south especially in pushed by Jefferson Davis, which led to the depletion of resources in the south.
Harry Turtledove has a great book series of alternative history that takes the Union and confederacy through the civil war to WWII. It not only covers the United States but greatly covers the world.
I read all those books. I thought it would be silly but I got hooked during the first book
I love the unspoken point made by the books: why we don't speak of the United States as "are." In the series, it's always "the United States are." This is because the Union, a single political entity, broke; & now the United States are those States united around the ideal, but they're not a Union the way our US is.
The South started losing in the West from very early in the war, and loss of New Orleans early on doomed them. It is why Lee kept trying to fight and win a knock out blow.
"Do not go gentle into that good night" is from British-born poet Dylan Thomas' poem of the same name. Script writers and speech writers *wish* they could write prose that good.
Okay? I'm getting the hint he's dead
🤣🤣🤣
I mean writing is evolving. Tbh no one writes like Hammurabi or Thoth anymore.. . . Yeah.
"Do not go gentle into that good night" was one of the last messages before spirit rover went offline I think
I recommend that people watch the "Checkmate Lincolnites!" series by Atun-Shei Films.
I second this recommendation!
It’s ok,
@@the4tierbridge
Understatement
@@Jechti307 I mean, the series likes to go off on random tangents (like that segment in “Did the Confederacy have BETTER GENERALS” about who was better morally, which has nothing to do with being a general) and cherry-pick, but still very educational and funny. 8.5/10.
@@the4tierbridge
It's not random tangents nits litteraly addressing direct arguments from Lost Causers. The morality argument was brought up by them he just address'd it.
Brilliant! See you on part two! Keep up the great work. Cheers
I've seen this video many times and this was enjoyable. Look forward to part 2.
Thanks a Lot for this one! Keep the good work coming :)
Love these videos. Can't wait for the next one! Your commentary is fantastic by the way.
Hearing your starting knowledge of Sherman's March, that part is going to be very fun to see your reaction to
Not that it was a *huge* part of the war. I wish they went into a little more detail on the world wide naval effect that the American creation of ironclads had. Essentially as soon as they were built it is considered that every other naval ship in the world immediately became obselete. Ironclads could take on a LOT of the wooden sail ships.
The Confederates also created the first combat tested sub (that sank on its mission, but still).
they didnt make the first ones though europe already had and were building more ironclads. it was just the first war that they were used in.
I think they talk about it in the second video
The ironclad was invented in the 1840’s. The Battle of Hampton Roads was just the first time two fought.
@@ZKP314 It also sank 5 times before that.
Plus, wasn’t Turtle “combat tested”.
Great reactions mate, see you in part two.
Senator Charles Sumner was caned by Rep. Preston Brooks, who took Sumner's provocative speech as a personal insult to his family, and in particular to his uncle who was also a Senator. Sumner was beaten so badly he was unable to return to his Sebnate seat for 3 yrs. Interestingly, Preston Brooks although a relatively young man, himself did not live very long afterwards, although i forget what disease or illness he died of. So Sumner, at least lived longer, and got to see the end of slavery in the US, but he suffered from the effects of the beating for the rest of his life.
Brooks’ cane was made of gutta-percha. The assault so violent the cane was broken. Sumner’s fans sent him many caned as gifts to replace the broken one.
Wow just this morning i commented asking for your to do this. So pumped
Great video keep it up. Historical reaction videos are huge, so you give it enough time I bet each of the videos you've posted will hit 100,000.
I feel like this guy is about to get popular! Very good youtuber!
One big reason the North had such bad generals was because almost all of the military academies were in the south, so they had a lot more to choose from.
Idk how I stumbled on your channel but I think you’re quirkiness is helping. Really different but unique. Keep it up please.
Another good video as always Mr. Brit!
You’re such a wholesome great guy I love watching your reactions 👏
love the vids!!!!
After the battle of Antietam or as its known to Southerners "Sharpsburg" Lincoln sent message after message to McClellan to pursue Lee's withdrawing army. One excuse McClellan gave for not pursuing Lee is that his army's horses was fatigued. This was about a week or so after the battle and Lincoln sent back a message asking McClellan what the army had done to cause the horses to be so fatigued. This refusal to pursue Lee was the last straw and Lincoln permanently relieved McClellan.
Hey man I came back for more, looking for to part 2
Sherman's March to the Sea was like the first time in modern warfare when all means of war production and sustaining of life were wiped out. Sherman's army marched from Atlanta to Savannah Georgia on the sea coast and they destroyed all railroads, all farms, all barns, all food was confiscated all farm animals confiscated or killed, he just left one big long scar on the land. Some today feel that it was totally unnecessary or even genocide.
The mission was aimed at war goods, not personal property. How much it went over that will always be debated.
Sherman's men took food to support themselves. Railroads and war production buildings were destroyed. Plantations left vacant might be burned but not inhabited ones.
No, it was not genocide.
It was not genocide, lmao!
It was property destruction and theft, but I'm pretty sure no ethnic group was erased from the region.
@@TheSkyGuy77 I didn't say it was genocide I was quoting a historian from Georgia.
@@narlycat “A historian from Georgia” might not be the most objective source…
Just subscribed! Loving your content mate!
I would suggest watching the movies "Gettysburg" and "Glory" (the longer versions). Granted they are dramatizations and some liberties were taken (not many), they are, in my opinion, the two best movies about the Civil War. You really get a sense of what the war was like. Whenever I see a British reaction to the US Civil War, I like to post a speech from a member of the British Parliament.
“But war, in a good cause, is not the greatest evil which a nation can suffer. War is an ugly thing, but not the ugliest of things: the decayed and degraded state of moral and patriotic feeling which thinks nothing worth a war, is worse. When a people are used as mere human instruments for firing cannon or thrusting bayonets, in the service and for the selfish purposes of a master, such war degrades a people. A war to protect other human beings against tyrannical injustice - a war to give victory to their own ideas of right and good, and which is their own war, carried on for an honest purpose by their free choice - is often the means of their regeneration. A man who has nothing which he is willing to fight for, nothing which he cares more about than he does about his personal safety, is a miserable creature who has no chance of being free, unless made and kept so by the exertions of better men than himself. As long as justice and injustice have not terminated their ever-renewing fight for ascendancy in the affairs of mankind, human beings must be willing, when need is, to do battle for the one against the other.” - John Stuart Mill
John Stuart Mill was a member of the British Parliament during the time of our civil war, and he argued that the UK should provide support to the Union. Roughly 60 years prior the UK had abolished slavery, and it was his hope that they can end the war sooner, thus ending slavery quicker with fewer lives lost. This is something that both our nations do not know a lot about. While the official stance of foreign governments were to remain neutral during this conflict, there were many within those governments that wanted to intervene with either side. It kind of makes you wonder what could have happened if other nations had gotten involved.
Great speech. I wanted to mention that both England AND the US passed laws to stop the importation of slaves in 1807. I’m assuming it was a little harder to stop in America though because of the massive coastline. England emancipated all slaves throughout its empire in 1833, so about 30 years before America. Even then there was the notable exception of India, where slavery continues to this day.
@@thewiseoldherper7047 It may have been harder in the US, but I believe it just was not really enforced. Much like the police during prohibition, a lot of them just didn't care, and it was a huge strain on resources. Those laws were "too little, too late" for America. Besides, with the growing tensions between the US and Britain (which would blow up in just a few years) it was not a really high priority.
@@meltedplasticarmyguy yep. As we’ve seen from this video the states rights were as strong if not stronger than the federal governments. I’m sure there was a lot of winking and nodding going on.
@@thewiseoldherper7047 "I’m assuming it was a little harder to stop in America though because of the massive coastline. "
No, the IMPORTATION of slaves was stopped by this. US naval forces were even already joining in international task forces suppressing the international slave trade. But, of course, by then there was a domestic supply in the US south. From then to the time that the victorious Union armies brought emancipation to southern slaves, the institution was continued by "natural increase" as it were.
@Aditya Chavarkar yes I mentioned England’s 1833 emancipation. However India is considered the biggest slaveholding country in the world. According to the Global Slavery Index, India has up to 14 million of the 35 million slaves that exist in the world today. But it’s not the traditional slavery of you outright own the person and he lives on your property. I would assume that India’s constitution has banned that. It’s more the modern version defined as the act of recruiting, harboring, transporting, providing, or obtaining a person for compelled labor or commercial sex acts through the use of force, fraud, or coercion. So that means any type of bonded labor over debt, forced child labor, forced adult labor, sex trafficking, and forced begging. India has all of those.
Here is the Lincoln quote you wanted to reference.
"If I could save the Union without freeing any slave I would do it, and if I could save it by freeing all the slaves I would do it; and if I could save it by freeing some and leaving others alone, I would also do that."
the algorithm randomly gave me this video and it gets a win today, good sir you have a new sub
Hello really like this content keep the good work up
Raised in Kansas and even though it is called Oversimplified, Bleeding Kansas deserves its own episode for how much it is glossed over. This includes the writing of two State Constitutions by different cities which were recognized by different states. Pro Slavery Missouri Militias joined Pro Slavery militias in Kansas to burn down Lawrence. In retaliation John Brown and the abolitionist forces from Lawrence aka Jayhawkers retaliated. The whole state began its own Civil War and today John Brown is remembered as the valiant abolitionist whose portrait is rightly hung in the Kansas State Capitol.
Just a suggestion for your channel, because as you dive deeper in to videos like this, when you pause, consider going back 10-15 seconds because it seems like your pauses can be really delayed as you get in to a thought, so there's the potential of missing some really important details. I love that you're wanting to get in to a thought, but I'd hate for you to miss something important that could spark an even deeper one. Thanks for watching these awesome videos and for your thoughts and reaction!
You are exactly what I imaged James Potter as.
Anyways love the videos 😂
It's a weird effect these kinds of videos give me. Seeing people from different countries be interested in our history makes me more interested in learning about it myself as well
He's back :D
You knew a lot more going in than a lot of Americans today. Fort Sumter, the Underground Railroad, US Grant, Stonewall Jackson... pretty impressive. The incidents (other than the humorous additions) were real- the caning on the Senate floor, the war plans found wrapping cigars, the family that left their home and settled at Appomattox,. You're quite enjoyable to watch, it's plain that you're a smart guy but quite eager to learn more. I look forward to part 2. Subscribing and liking!
Your take on Lincoln is accurate. While being anti-slavery himself, he was wary about the repercussions of abolishing it or speaking out too strongly against it for fear of further division. His main goal was always preserve the Union.
Have you ever read the speech that Frederick Douglass gave at the unveiling of a statue for Lincoln in DC, commemorating emancipation? I found it to be an honest & powerful take on Lincoln & the reality of it all..
Many of the command staff in both sides, had gone to West Point together. They were fighting classmates. McClellan ended up in Texas, where he designed a saddle
Good job for getting a lot of subs with 5 vids!
Ulysses S. Grant wasn’t his birth name. His name was actually Hiram Ulysses Grant, but when he went to West Point (US Military Academy), his appointment was made under the wrong name (Ulysses S. Grant). His classmates called him Sam. Winfield Scott was one of his friends at West Point. Grant and Stonewall Jackson overlapped by 1 year at West Point.
How did they get Sam from all of that?? Was it the S.?
@@Tamaki742 because of the name change mishap, the S stood for nothing, but his initials became U.S. Since the personification of the federal government was Uncle Sam and the legend had come about relative recent (it was about 27 years after the lore of Uncle Sam started) it fit. Uncle Sam started as a legend because a guy named Sam was supply the army with beef in barrels during the War of 1812 and the soldiers joked the the U.S. stamped on the barrels was Uncle Sam watching out for them.
@@kellyc4729 I see, that's kinda cool.
1:04 - I haven't even watched the reaction yet but the shade deserves my upvote and sub immediately.
This guy is so interesting i have no doubt his channel will continue to grow
Im not sure if youve done a video on it but id love to see your take on The 1st Minnesota charge during the civil war
Part 1 of 2
(BTW, I love your "Lord Kitchener Wants You" poster!)
1) Regarding the anecdote of the almanac and phases of the moon: Lincoln used it to challenge the validity of the eyewitness who alleged that from a distance of roughly 150 feet (46 meters) at night he clearly saw the accused commit the crime. The accused was quickly acquitted.
2) At 5:02, Tom Hanks can be seen briefly on the assembly line! He is a distant relation to Abraham Lincoln through the family of Lincoln's mother, who was born Nancy Hanks.
3) It is difficult to get accurate statistics, but one number often used online for the average price of a slave in 1860 is $800. Adjusting for inflation, the approximately 4 million slaves were worth at least $100 billion today, or $3 billion in 1860. There almost certainly wasn't enough gold in the entire country if the government had wished to buy the slaves before freeing them. Many abolitionists had naive hopes that the slaves could just be freed, in the course of normal politics, but the amount of money involved made a war almost certainly necessary.
4) The Utah and New Mexico Territories never had legal slavery, although there were likely pockets of illegal slavery. Also, the Mexicans who were already there when we stole (sorry, I mean won) these lands from Mexico were treated little better than slaves, or perhaps serfs is the better word.
5) The Underground Railroad was a network of people who, at risk to their own lives, helped slaves escape the South. The further north in the U.S. they went, the safer these escaped slaves were perceived to be. But the Fugitive Slave Act of 1850, which was reprehensible but constitutional, mandated that local law enforcement assist slave bounty hunters, which outraged people in the North. This law made it necessary for escaped slaves to go to Canada to be safe. Many black people in Canada are the descendants of escaped slaves.
6) The man beaten on the floor of Congress was Senator Charles Sumner of Massachusetts. He suffered head trauma, nightmares, severe headaches, and what we now call PTSD. He could not resume his duties in the Senate for several years and likely never fully recovered from his injuries.
7) At 11:10, the "Dred Scott" decision denying even freed blacks the right of citizenship is considered the worst decision ever made by the U.S. Supreme Court. The man who was the Chief Justice, Roger B. Taney (pronounced "Tawny"), has had a statue for many years in the Capitol Building in Washington, D.C. Congress recently voted to replace it with one of Thurgood Marshall, the first black Supreme Court Justice.
8) After much reading, it seems to me that the southern states seceded as much from fear of what the majority northerners would have the federal government do, as they did from anger at what had already been done. The South had controlled much of the federal government in the 1850s, until they lost the presidential election of 1860. People with extreme wealth and power tend to be incapable of sharing; many have the emotional maturity of toddlers and cannot share their toys. The slave-owning aristocrats of the South could not tolerate losing anything, and so they started a war they should have known they could not win, thereby causing them to lose everything.
9) OverSimplified took some liberties with the words of the girl who suggested Lincoln grow a beard. She wrote him a very polite letter: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Grace_Bedell
10) When the southern states seceded they took roughly half of the army with them. They also seized military facilities and large quantities of weapons. Fort Sumter could not be tolerated to remain in Union hands because it would shut down the port of Charleston, South Carolina. Evacuating the fort would have understandably been perceived to be a Union defeat, so instead Lincoln sent the navy to merely resupply it. He did not want a war, but if one came he wished the Confederates should fire the first shots.
11) At 19:24, Lincoln has lit the Beacons of Minas Tirith and is blowing the Horn of Gondor!
12) The 2 capital cities are only about 100 miles (160 km) apart. The four years of fighting devasted the areas of northern Virginia which lay between. It took decades for the land to recover all of the trees which had been cut down for camp fires.
13) It wasn't just the population advantage of 22 million vs. 5 million, not including slaves. The South had almost no industry (I read somewhere that New York City alone had more than the 11 states of the Confederacy).
14) At 20:45, the Union's top general, Winfield Scott, was age 74 when the war began. He had first made a name for himself in the War of 1812 against the UK, so much that a boy born in 1824 named for him grew up to be one of the Union's top generals in the Civil War--Winfield Scott Hancock.
15) Washington, D.C., is just across the Potomac River from the state of Virginia. When Virginia seceded federal troops occupied its nearby areas, including the estate of General Robert E. Lee, which is now Arlington National Cemetery. Washington is surrounded on the other 3 sides by the state of Maryland, which remained in the Union but had slavery. Lincoln had to be very careful not to do anything to push Maryland into seceding, because that would have left the northern capital surrounded by enemy territory.
16) At 25:33, Lincoln is quoting the movie "Goodfellas."
17) Frederick Douglass was one of those extraordinary figures from history that don't seem like were real people. He was born a slave, escaped as a young man, and was largely self-educated. He was such a brilliant orator that even white abolitionists were shocked that any black man could be so intelligent. Two of my favorite quotes of his are "Without a struggle, there can be no progress" and "Power concedes nothing without a demand. It never did and it never will."
18) OverSimplified misspoke when he said escaped slaves were "held as enemy contraband." Since southerners insisted slaves were property, the Union Army took slaves as contraband, without compensating their owners. But they did not "hold" them, they paid them to work; and some of the former slaves figured they were safest with the large group of armed men who had just freed them.
19) You are spot-on about the troubles the North had with their generals. Both sides had a problem at the beginning with "peacetime" generals who couldn't lead men in combat, which has happened in many wars. The South successfully removed their bad generals, but the North struggled with this for the entire war. Some of their bad generals were so politically powerful--Benjamin Butler and Ambrose Burnside--that Lincoln could only assign them to less vital jobs where their numerous mistakes would get fewer men killed. (BTW, google Ambrose Burnside and you'll see why he is the namesake for sideburns.)
Frederick Douglass ran a newspaper in Rochester, NY. He and Susan B. Anthony knew each other, and originally worked together for equal voting rights, but then Douglass said they should work for the black right to vote first and women after, while Anthony wanted them simultaneously. There’s a great statue of them having tea together. Douglass’s half was vandalized last year, and the city responded by not only restoring it but putting up a bunch of smaller statues of Douglass all over town. 👍🏻
Excellent comment. On your last point, having read about the rampant and blatant political affiliations of the Union officers, it has always made me wonder whether or how much their political views affected their performance. Certainly, in many cases it did not. But there were definitely elements of the Democratic Party (known as the "copperheads") that disagreed with the war and certainly criticized Lincoln's prosecution of it. There is no decent way to impugn the patriotism of people who cannot defend themselves, and I am not aware of any charges of treason based on political affiliation. But there certainly were generals who would stand to gain by embarrassing the Lincoln Administration.
@@johnalden5821 Thank you. Perhaps that explains why some incompetent generals retained their political support, but I'd hate to think the generals were sabotaging the war effort. One aspect of the war that does not get sufficient attention is why Lincoln, the Commander-in-Chief, had so much trouble getting his generals to obey orders. Was it because most of the Union Army were not "regular army" but volunteers in the state militias?
@@JPMadden I do know that even within the Republican Party (to say nothing of the Democrats), there were several factions centered around the top party officials from each state (Cameron in PA, Seward in NY). Power was more concentrated in state legislatures, which at that time elected the U.S. senators. Party bosses tended to coordinate who served in DC versus governor, etc. So, any general hoping for a political future would have to consider the state party leadership in his own state and other states, and they were not all loyal Lincoln supporters at all times. Plus, there was already a (not so) fine tradition of political generals going back to Jackson, W.H. Harrison, Winfield Scott and Zachary Taylor (although he apparently never voted prior to becoming president himself). That continued on through the 19th century and into the next one: Grant, Hayes, Garfield, TR (in a contrived way) and Eisenhower. I agree, there is no cause to say these men were dragging their feet in their duties, but it has been documented that for some of the lesser ones, politics was an unwelcome but necessary distraction, or at least they perceived it that way.
@@johnalden5821 Thank you. I just find it interesting that Lincoln would write to his generals and request rather than order them to do something. Perhaps it was just the way people wrote letters back then. For example, when Grant sent Lee a letter at Appomattox Court House suggesting Lee should surrender, he signed it "your obedient servant."
One of the things I would recommend for you to watch is a series of videos called Checkmate Linconites by
Atun-Shei Films here on youtube. He has them in a playlist but it's in reverse order so I would recommend starting with the oldest video in the series and work your way to the most recent one. Has a lot of interesting context and really helps illustrate the war.
Also, you comment on how useless some of the politicians and generals were. I would recommend the book Team of Rivals by Doris Kearns Goodwin. It's an extremely thorough biography of lincoln and discusses this in detail. It's also available as an audiobook.
I just started watching this video and I'm sure it's gonna be terrific! I have seen the original. But, and this is the point, I've been reading (well, listening to) Grant's memoirs for the last week and I'm just after half through. It's terrific. So much so that not only do I have to listen to it at 1.0 speed (a rarity), I keep having to pause or rewind it because he says so much with so little. Please read it! (You might want to have Wikipedia up to have maps in front of you for certain bits.) Anyway, I'm gonna sit back now and watch!
Lincoln actually did grow a beard after he was elected because people told him he needed to because he was ugly and needed to make himself look better for the presidency .
specifically a little girl, Grace Bedell, who is labeled as such in the video.
@@starshipmechanic To be fair to little Grace, she wasn't nearly as rude in real life as she was in this video!
Hon A B [sic] Lincoln...
Dear Sir My father has just home from the fair and brought home your picture and Mr. Hamlin's. I am a little girl only 11 years old, but want you should be President of the United States very much so I hope you wont think me very bold to write to such a great man as you are. Have you any little girls about as large as I am if so give them my love and tell her to write to me if you cannot answer this letter. I have yet got four brothers and part of them will vote for you any way and if you let your whiskers grow I will try and get the rest of them to vote for you you would look a great deal better for your face is so thin. All the ladies like whiskers and they would tease their husbands to vote for you and then you would be President. My father is going to vote for you and if I was a man I would vote for you to [sic] but I will try to get every one to vote for you that I can I think that rail fence around your picture makes it look very pretty I have got a little baby sister she is nine weeks old and is just as cunning as can be. When you direct your letter direct to Grace Bedell Westfield Chautauqua County New York. I must not write any more answer this letter right off Good bye
Grace Bedell
It pleases me that she did indeed live long enough to be able to vote herself, in time.
I’ve heard since TVs became mainstream there hasn’t bin a balled president
@@darkseeker102 Eisenhower, Kennedy, Reagan... that's about it
“Say goodbye to your family cuz idk when u will see them again…”
One of the best things I’ve ever heard someone say about a video being long
I took a Civil War class in college and wrote a report on Frederick Douglass. He is definitely a fascinating person. I encourage everyone to study up on him.
while i was in the air force i was stationed in missouri and took a trip to a battlefield site nearby. theyve left much of it as it was the day the battle took place and you can see the obvious bullet holes but it becomes ominous a bit to look and notice the not so obvious ones up in corners of rooms.
Get the free reafir software for your OBS studio to drown out background noise. That way people are only getting the audio of the video and you, not the fan and everything else. Other than that, I love your videos.
The invention of the cotton gin was THE BIG DEAL that made the continuation of slavery economically advantageous. Prior, cotton had to be manually picked and then the seeds removed by hand. The seed removal took longer than harvesting. It was profitable, but the cotton gin eliminated the need for labor to be devoted to seed removal. The removal of that task allowed the labor to be redirected to planting and harvesting far larger fields.
The irony being that it was invented to *discourage* slavery by making it easier for the average farmer to remove cotton seeds by himself rather than rely on enslaved people.
I love watching these with you man 🇺🇸 🇬🇧
Recommended for Civil War alternate histories: Harry Turtledove's Southern Victory series (aka Timeline 191) and Peter Tsouras' Britannia's Fist trilogy.
Going back over the times, Slavery is actually a large detriment to a healthy economy. It's just true that free labor is a better product then slave labor. Once slave work was gone, with a little time for the system to change, the economy took off and flourished much better with free people. Even if you ignore the moral arguments, slavery is a shitty system. JS.
Winfield Scott was old by the time the civil war start, about 74 years of age, he was a veteran of the war of 1812 and the Mexican American war. He didn't live long after the war, dying in 1866, aged 79.
The Southern generals may have been better because there was more of a military tradition in the South. And remember that before the South seceded they were all in the same army. In fact, some of General Lee's success was because he had taught at the US military academy and some of the Northern generals had been students of his, so he knew them well.
That said, I have to confess that I'm skeptical about the idea that the Confederacy on average had better generals. True, they may have had some spectacular battlefield victories, but I feel like they were more focused on the battles at hand than on strategies that would actually help them achieve their overall objectives. Lee's decision at Gettysburg is case in point; after the Confederacy's success on the first day of that battle, Longstreet, recognizing that the Union now had a better position, urged Lee to redeploy somewhere else where the ground favored them. That way they could have decisively defeated the Union on their own soil and threatened Washington DC in a way that would have made the North sue for peace - which was the whole point of their campaign at the time. But instead, Lee insisted that since this was where they had encountered the Union, this would be where they would defeat the Union. As a result, Lee ended up suffering possibly his greatest defeat and lost his best chance of winning the war for the Confederacy.
Contrast that with Grant, who was always focused on the objective and wasn't afraid to do whatever he needed to in order to achieve it, whether it was a relentless attack or a strategic retreat. Don't get me wrong; I'm not saying that Lee was a bad general. But overall, I do honestly think Grant was a better one.
An historian has written a book saying that while the Southern spirit was more martial and brave, it was also more impulsive and disorganized.
They understate Mary Todd Lincoln being “inconsolable.” After her husband’s death, she was put in an insane asylum for some time, then lived w/ her sister until she died😔
To answer your question about Native Americans during the Civil War:
Native American involvement and thoughts about the American Civil War differed depending on where certain groups originally came from and where they were located when the war was going on.
Some Native Americans that had been relocated to reservations in Oklahoma chose to support the South because they had already signed treaties with the Union, which the Union broke. Although they did not know how the Confederacy would treat them after the war, their past experiences with the Union was enough to convince them that the North was going to treat them poorly no matter what they did. For the most part, they felt that taking a risk with supporting the unknown intentions of the South was far better than supporting a nation that had already stabbed them in the back.
On the Other hand, other Native Americans who had been relocated to reservations in Oklahoma already knew from experience that the Confederacy was not going to treat them any better than the Union. In the end they chose to side with the North because they knew that the North had more man power, more industry, and a higher potential for winning the war. They knew that if they supported the Confederacy and they lost, they would end up facing even worse repercussions.
As for Native American Nations that had not been relocated and lived in the giant unclaimed territory that stretched in-between the Mid-West and the West Coast, they saw the war as an opportunity to prepare for what came after. They did not get actively involved and hoped that the war dragged on for a long time. They knew that regardless of who won, they were going to have to fight against the inevitable expansion that would resume after the war was over. The war basically provided them a small break from fighting outsiders. As many of them put it, "As long as white people were too busy fighting each other, they wouldn't have any time to fight them."
i’m legitimately a fan now
22:00 Not only is DC close to the South it was a Southern city itself at the time and Baltimore to its north was likewise and posed a threat to the DC rail lines. That is why Lincoln suspended Habeaus Corpus and threatened to arrest the MD legislature if they voted to secede, to preserve access to DC.
I was about to sit through this until I saw part 2 lol
He prepared and reacted
I love people learning my countries history. It's not perfect but we are young as a nation. Thank you.
I look forward to your merch somehow being a critique of other people's merch.
Wonderful reaction but as a lawyer I feel obligated to point a couple things out. First, whenever you have a lawyer represent you, it is their job to represent you and your interests to the best of their ability within the confines of the law and the rules or professional conduct; basically do not falsify evidence and do not perjure yourself to the court among other things. Second, nothing undermines a witness' credibility like being caught committing perjury right in front of the judge and jury and if the prosecutor's case centered around that witness' testimony then I would say the jury had no real choice but to acquit. Lastly, while you are right, Lincoln's client "may" have gotten away with murder he might have been completely innocent for all we know.
The basic point I am trying to make is it that is not fair to hold that against Lincoln. After all he had a professional, ethical, and I would argue a moral responsibility to represent his client to the best of his abilities in that trial. Granted there are things he can and should at the very least be challenged for like arresting people and denying them a trial, but not for his work as a lawyer.
The caning of Charles Sumner was actually way more brutal than is depicted in the video. Sumner dealt with those injuries for the rest of his life. He was nearly killed and it took years for him to be able return to the Senate full time.
If you’re looking for alternative history I would recommend Harry Turtledove’s books he has a series about if the South won
Yes, both sides had navies. One of the southern ships, the CSS Alabama, was built in England and was a successful commerce raider (pirates, with a largely British crew) but eventually was sunk, never having docked at a southern port.
Fun fact about Ulysses S Grant:
His real name was Hiram Ulysses Grant. There was an error when filling out his application for the US Military Academy at West Point, so instead of going through the arduous legal process of correcting the paperwork, he had his name legally changed, which was actually much easier.
If you don’t have street lights a full moon makes it easy to see compared to a half moon.
One great advantage that Lee had was that he was commandant of the military academy (West Point). Therefore he knew nearly all the generals on both sides, thus being able to guess their strategies and exploit their weaknesses.
Lee was a good tactician but poor strategist, repeatedly confronting the North in open battle was a terrible idea that made the South's eventual defeat inevitable.
For the bit about Lincoln possibly getting a murderer acquitted, the reason the moon being a half-moon rather than full wasn't to prove the witness was lying. It was important because it provides doubt that the witness could be a reliable source. That's because if the moon was only half rather than full, then it wouldn't have provided him enough light to actually make out any clear details about the scene.
12:38 yes in fact it's similar to a combination of Nativism and Nimbyism. The majority in the North were not abolitionists but with the Dred Scott ruling a majority came to be in favor of containment of slavery and Republicans by nominating Lincoln picked a candidate that could speak to this kind of voter with his own emphasis on restricting slavery to where it was already.
Hi I'm from California and also a Native American, and I'd like to add some more information about California. California did enter the union as a free state, but only did so because of the gold rush. Many goldminers saw slave owners as having an unfair advantage in the goldrush and pretty much lobbied against it; even going as fair as saying that using slaves in the gold rush went against the entrepreneurial spirit that is the gold rush. There weren't many slave owners in California at the time to support slavery in California because it was risky bringing slaves to a state that had no slave hunters and was so far from the southern states that did. Another reason why California did not want slaves is because they wanted to keep black people out of the state.
Now, California unfortunately still had slavery, but just a different flavor. In the early days of statehood, a whiteman could go to any jail in the Los Angeles area and pay the bail for any indigenous person. That indigenous person would then be obligated to pay off that debt by working for said whiteman. The problem with that is that it was vague how much the indigenous person had to pay off and for how long. Also, laws on what an indigenous person could be arrested for were super vague; vagrancy could be a reason to arrest them. To white americans, anything type of living off the land that did not reflect their own style of living could be considered vagrancy. This ultimately targeted indigenous people and lead to the erasure of indigenous californians.
You see when the united states won the war against mexico, they signed the treaty of guadalupe-hidalgo in which mexico ceded land to the united states, but the united states agreed to protect the protect and civil rights of the mexican citizen who were now on new US land. If you were an indigenous person in california, the only way to avoid targeted arrest and indentured servitude was to claim to be mexican and assimilate to mexican way of life. This is partially the reason why california has so little native population and huge mexican population (besides it being next to and former part of mexico). Today, many mexican people in california are discovering that they families are actually indigenous californians and those tribes are starting to grow.
I love living in california and so happy that it is a progressive state, but I think it is important to know the history of the state instead of glancing over it.
It didn’t mention the the north states also had slaves and Lincoln’s declaration did not free the northern slaves at all. It was like if England made a law that banned something from being legal in France but kept it legal in England. It actually made no sense.
Richmond Virginia is just over 100 miles from Washington DC, which was longer back when most travel was by horse and only a few trains.
A book called Inhuman Bondage published this Century examines the debates that led to British Abolition from c1760-1830. America's founders knew this would come up eventually, and designed the Constitution and it's dodges to prevent and delay this until slavery died out. Then the cotton gin....
That Lincoln quote you're thinking of around the 13:23 mark goes something like this "if the southern states agree to stop rebelling I'll welcome them all back slave chains and all", which is something he said when a bunch of states were succeeding and he was worried the border states like Maryland and Kentucky were thinking about succeeding from the union. The border states refers to the southern ish states that had slaves but slavery wasn't a crucial part of their economy and culture, and didn't want to go to war over it. Lincoln was a great man and did a lot of good but he was still a politician