Post #3150354

2026-06-06 18:17 UTC

In 1865, the guns of the Civil War fell silent. Many Northerners believed the nation had been remade. Good over evil. Right over wrong. But they underestimated the determination of those who had lost. The Civil War ended 161 years ago. Yet Americans are still arguing over the same questions: who counts as a citizen, who can vote, and whose America this is. 1/14 Image: Two Black American Union soldiers, Gladstone Collection of African American Photographs, cia 1860s. Universal History Archive.

Replies (9)

@Deglassco@mastodon.social 2026-06-06 18:22

Four million formerly enslaved people answered that question for themselves. They built schools, churches, political organizations, newspapers, and voting blocs. Congress rewrote the Constitution. Black men entered public office across the South. For a brief moment, American democracy expanded as never before. 2/14 Image: The Freedmen's Schoolhouse in Smithfield is the last-of-its-kind in North Carolina. Collection of the Smithsonian’s National Museum of African American History and Culture.

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@noiseician@mastodon.world 2026-06-06 18:19

@Deglassco@mastodon.social failure to properly punish the Confederacy is exactly why we are in the current fascist moment

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@markhburton@mstdn.social 2026-06-06 18:47

@Deglassco@mastodon.social A parallel. Approx 1975, record number of Trade Union members in the UK. Then 1979,Thatcher, and the rest is history, written by victors.

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@michaelgemar@cosocial.ca 2026-06-06 19:18

@Deglassco@mastodon.social @benroyce@mastodon.social The US won the war, but lost Reconstruction.

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@NilaJones@zeroes.ca 2026-06-06 20:24

@Deglassco@mastodon.social Thank you for this thread And oh! The picture frame around those two soldiers. Someone treasured that photo

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@sinabhfuil@mastodon.ie 2026-06-06 20:37

@Deglassco@mastodon.social look at that thousand-yard stare

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@felis_catus_domesticus@toot.community 2026-06-06 20:38

@Deglassco@mastodon.social

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@decapitae@mastodon.social 2026-06-06 23:10

@Deglassco@mastodon.social Really, it's seems it is the rich arguing against the poor. Maybe socialism or communism isn't the way, but the longer the idiots at te top push their putrid status quo, the sooner we will see a pathway open up to eithrmer or both - to the "leaders": For hating communism, something you've never experienced or seen, only heard about from your "superiors"; You're doing a damned fine job of ushering it in at every bigoted turn of your sordid "conquests"

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@SeanPLynch@mastodon.social 2026-06-07 02:14

@Deglassco@mastodon.social Thank you!

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