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Originally Posted by tbob
Oh come on. Essentially all? Give me a break. Many Southerners were no more racist than Northerners in that era. Read some books about Northern soldiers and their attitudes toward African Americans. Most went to war not to free the slaves but to reunite the country and put down the rebellion. Plus don't forget that over 95% of Confederate soldiers never owned a single slave nor did their families. This was the Second War of Independence for many Southerners whose grandfathers fought in the Revolutionary War.
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I participate sparingly on a Civil War forum, and it's incredible how blind people are today when it comes to racial attitudes in the past. First we inflict today's standards on people living in the past, then we inflict our wishes on people from the past who we wish had been something that they weren't. As a whole, the South (and the North);i.e- the entire U.S.A., in Cobb's time, was racist compared to today. As a whole, Cobb was racist even back then. All the wishing in the world isn't going to change the past. You learn and move forward.