Chapter 15 Reflection

I hardly knew anything about the Post-Civil War South before our class room studied the unit on it. I knew so little it was even embarrassing. I couldn't even tell you what happened after the Civil War and what was accomplished. All I could tell you is that The North fought the South. That is about it. But now I have a great understanding of the events that occurred. What stood out to me most was the extremely opposite mentalities regarding African Americans in the South. The fact that the South even after losing the war still tried efforts of maintaining slavery through the black codes and revolting with the Ku Klux Klan. It amazes me that the North had to go to such great lengths as deploying troops, creating amendments, and passing laws to establish Blacks as equal to any other man because of the strong Intolerance the South would not let go of. Its an awful thing to say but studying about the South and Andrew Johnson really did remind me of the racism and intolerance of Hitler and the "Aryans" in Germany.  I was familiar with confederates but now I have a strong knowledge of the attempts they made to maintain white Supremacy.
  I believe it is important for people to know the past because as cliche as it sounds you can learn from it. Yea that's horribly cliche but true. By studying the past and seeing the result of what certain mindsets caused both negative and positive, I believe we can form our own modern mindsets and morals in a way that can yield the best results in life. For instance knowing that racism caused a divide in the country and accepting freedom for black slaves progressed our country (inventions by Washington Carver etc.) we can apply an open mindset today and work with people of all mindsets to achieve great things as seen in history. Plus the past did shape our society as it stands today. On a smaller note knowing what had to occur in the past to allow the society we live in today we can be a little more thankful, especially that we won't get killed for be an abolitionist.