The point of the mystery document is to introduce a primary document into the proceedings. Often the best way to study an event is to examine the experience of the people who lived through that event. -stan
Lincoln also ordered the Union Army to protect freed slaves, made sure they treated freed slaves as equals while in the Union Army, and encouraged the border states to free their slaves. There were two constants in Lincoln. The first is that he hated slavery and wanted it gone, and the second is that he did not want his country to collapse. When it was collapsing, he used that as the perfect avenue to abolish slavery by pushing through the Thirteenth Amendment. Dude was honestly kinda brilliant.
Lincoln just wanted the war to end, he even said if he could end the war without freeing the slaves or freeing some and not others he would, the point in that being he would do whatever ever it took to retain the union.
Personally, I don't like him very much. He basically gave up on the work of the last 6 presidents by letting a civil war happen, which killed hundrends of thousends of people. And yet he's remembered as one of the greatest presisdents ever, for winning a war it was his job to avoid.
M. Douglas how did he "give up" on the work of the last 6 presidents? 1. States had already seceded from the union before he was sworn in. They were already illegally in open rebellion and he had to do something about it to make sure it would be recognized as NOT ok. 2. It's not like the last 6 presidents had worked on much to stop it from happening. All compromises were worked mainly in Congress and either way was completely temporary as far as history is concerned in the sense it was very clear slavery was not going to live in America and it was already starting to be dragged on long enough. 3. It was NOT his job to avoid a war. War was basically present by the time he was sworn in and it was his job to preserve the union and that is what he did. He didn't just let the Confederacy leave illegally and do what they wanted, no, he fought to bring them back to the Union and bring them back to actually modern ideas such as Slavery not being ok
On meeting her, Lincoln said to Harriet Beecher Stowe, 'So you're the little woman who wrote the book that started this great war.' ...Just throwing out random trivia.
Say what you want about Lincoln, but he freed more slaves than every single one of our founding fathers who wrote the constitution that said all men are created equal. If our founding fathers had stopped slavery when they should have there would not have been a civil war. At least Lincoln had the balls to get it started and was against slavery from the very first time he saw a slave when he was a boy.
The problem for them though, was in order to get the southern colonies onboard with the idea of an independent nation, they had to kick the can of slavery down the road to another generation. The writing was on the wall, the British Empire was in the process of ending slavery across the empire, this was motivation for the south to break free of their grasp, the founding fathers not mentioning slavery either way helped make the decision southern colonies needed to make to join the northern colonies in breaking free from the empire easier.
I honestly would like to see a crash course Asian history. China, India, Korea, Japan, and Singapore have been glossed over a bit by the series thus far. We've already gotten a fairly thorough coverage of western history. As an added bonus imagine how hilarious John's pronunciations will be, I rest my case.
Do they not think that there are many of us who actually study the civil war. Some people watch a movie about the acw and think they are experts. Good one SuperHamsterhuey.
I don't know about you, but I get chills listening to John Green recite the last part of the Gettysburg Address. Even brings a tear in my eye. Such a great recitation and address.
These videos are great. They really give a lot of context, cover many angles, and make you think. I feel like I'm gaining a deeper and more in depth understanding of history - and the present day- by watching these. Thanks John and the Crash Course team for this incredible resource.
As a proud citizen of the Green Parts of Not America, I'd like to thank John Green for providing us Green-Parts-of-Not-Americans education on these important topics.
The best part of the Gettysburg Address is that it doesn't specify which side's soldiers would not have died in vain. It encompasses all the dead, acknowledging that, despite one side had to lose, their sacrifices were still important and their dead would still be mourned.
Marvin Lee naw, then everyone would have to wear ridiculous clothes. Insta-revolt. Then they'd get a capitalist system, or just fuse with South Korea since they believe in the same things. Maybe it wouldn't be that bad. Unless the two hate each other for other reasons.
Marvin Lee I know. We don't ship stuff to communist countries, but South Korea has Starcraft 2 as a national sport. Maybe I should've clarified--just fuse with South Korea because then they'd both belief in the same things. Though I'm not sure if communism was the only reason the two nations split or not.
Shadow Wolf The nations were split after WWII because soviets took over the north and the us took over the south after Japan, korea's overlord, was defeated
Noah W. I'm not sure took is entirely the right word to use, it was a consequence of the surrender (north of the 38th parallell=surrender to soviet and south=surrender to the US), with neither side following the wishes of the UN and previous agreement between Roosvelt, Churchill and Chiang Kai-shek (Kuomintang/Nationalist China/Republic of China)
I just watched 24 of these in a row. Currently cramming for my APUSH midterm. I am woking on my sixth cup of coffee. It is the middle of the night. My exam is tomorrow. Moral of the story - DO NOT TRY TO LEARN ALL OF AMERICAN HISTORY UP TO THE CIVIL WAR THE NIGHT BEFORE A MAJOR TEST.
"Britain will never support or even recognise our nation the way it is. We should have freed the slaves and then fired on Fort Sumter." - James Longstreet
RiderofRiddermark James Longstreet. One of the great tactical geniuses of U.S history along with Nathanael Greene and the Union admiral that organized the blockade, such a shame Longstreet was on the wrong side. Even before the battle of Gettysburg he strongly advised against it.
GETAFE LEÓN Nathanael Greene is the only general in the video game Liberty or Death with 100 Tactics statistic. Other notable high Tactics generals, Daniel Morgan, William Thompson, and William Washington... Anyways it's a pretty awesome game lol. Washington himself has like 60 tactics but 98 Leadership and 100 Discipline stat... The best General in Britain is probably Guy Johnson or Henry Clinton.
John could be saying that Jackson just used powers that were technically granted to the president, but probably weren't meant to be used in the way he used them. Lincoln took that a step further and actually used executive powers he didn't have. Though that feels to me like just a semantic difference, so I have no idea what John meant. However, while Lincoln wasn't the first president to expand presidential powers (Polk and Jackson were both mentioned), he probably expanded them the most.
Students 100 years ago: Ah, the civil war. A terrible war between the union and the confederates over slavery and freedom. Students today: Civil War! I saw that movie. That airport battle was pretty cool.
These videos are a great quick study of so many historical issues! As a history teacher having to conduct my classes from home during quarantine, THANK YOU for making this great resource available.
samuel rappaport you’re not the only one, ap world/us teachers have legit given crash course videos for homework though, it’s becoming more and more common
Because I find it incredible. Click this through.. Literally the most intelligent debate I have ever found on youtube and I am in awe of the people having it. Also think it's rather one sided because one side has all the valid points, BUT STILL IN AWE.
I want to send a huge thank you to the Crash Course team. Yesterday I received my mystery package from the Project for Awesome and inside was script for this episode. It was a wonderful glimpse into the hard work that each of you do to make an episode come to life! Thank you for Crash Course, the project for awesome, and all that you do to decrease world suck!!! It is an hounour to call myself a NerdFighter! DFTBA
Here's another one. The war indirectly led to our acquisition of Alaska. During the war, the Union navy was occupied with blockading the Southern ports, which left the Eastern coast open to potential attack by Britain. So the Union sought aid from an unlikely source: Tsar Alexander II (who was an admirer of Lincoln, by the way). So Alexander sent the imperial Russian navy to safeguard the U.S. coast. But when the war was over, the Tsar wanted to be reimbursed for the cost. But it would not have gone over well with the public to learn that the Union, presumably fighting for such things as freedom and democracy, was being assisted by the supreme autocrat, "Tsar of All the Russias." So a deal was worked out. Russia possessed Alaska. It was a financial drain, and they wanted to get rid of it. So we bought it, in 1867. The deal was named "Seward's Folly," after the Secretary of State. Of course, 25 years later, gold was discovered in Alaska, and I'm sure the Russians were kicking themselves for having given it up. This comes from, "The Unseen Hand," by Ralph Epperson.
tinkandtory It goes to show: No matter what spy movies or Call of Duty games have come out, Russia has actually been cooler than people make it out to be. Much like the U.S has had good and bad leaders, so has Russia. Just don't colour the whole country as bad based off a few crummy leaders. (Cough cough, Stalin)
Clyde Wary Cool fact, US has acquired many territories. They bought all Louisiana to the Spain crown and many of former Mexican territories like Nevada, California, Texas, Montana etc were annexed in war. Just to think US was just a few colonies.
I think I saw Conan O'Brien dancing and Stephen Colbert on the wall :) Great presentations John Green! I don't always agree with your view but certainly you provide a great amount of information. By the way, do you have a presentation on the war against Paraguay that you mentioned?
I must say. I love American History. I LOVE it! I just love learning about it, but traditional textbooks just don't help sometimes. These videos are great for learning. Thank you!
When he said that part about America announcing that Lady Gaga would rule North Korea from now on I was like: "wait, did they?" And that's all we need to know about American politics
Some things I always notice the critics both then and now like to ignore: 1. the Constitution DOES grant the federal government the power to suspend habeus corpus in time of rebellion or invasion-granted, the framers weren't very clear on just what constitutes a rebellion and which branch of the federal government does that power reside with. In point of fact, nowhere in the Constitution does it specifically say that "secession is not rebellion," or even that states have the right to secede. And 2. Lincoln actually did get congressional authorization for suspending habeus corpus, and with bipartisan support at that.
Daniel Ryan You were doing great, till you got to the part where you said basically "this does NOT say that this is NOT that". If your statement sounds like you are trying to prove a negative, you are going to lose peoples attention quick. You need to restate the second sentence of point 1.
1:38 actually you're wrong. The government determined that they aren't allowed to succeed without approval from congress so technically the confederates were still part of the union in terms of international law. Therefore, the Union did have the authority to tell the confederate what to do but listening to that is another story.
Sort of, the Confederacy may have been part of the U.S. according to the U.S., however the Union had no actual power over the Confederacy until the war ended.
He’s not wrong. If the Emancipation Proclamation freed all the slaves that itself would be an admission that the states had indeed actually left the union which Lincoln maintained hadn’t occurred to begin with.
Dear Team of Historians, As said in the video, "All together the total cost of the war for the Union was 6.7 billion dollars." I was wondering, is that meant in the currency used back then, or the modern currency we have today.
I would like to thank you for this video. I am southern born and lived here in the south all my life.I have always tried to be a good person and I never harbored no racism in me. I dislike people or like people only by their actions, not by skin tone or hair length or what gender they are. Lately they want to take our Confederate flag away and make us feel ashamed to have come from the south. I have always loved the Rebel flag and will continue to do so! The Civil war helped to shape and mold America into what it is today. All them people, 680k+ that died in the Civil war ,I'm sure don't want us to just forget them and to think of them as a disgrace upon our nation! So the way I see it, the American Flag and the Confederate flag both, is what made our country.. Fly them both and be proud!
No, the confederacy is shameful. It was born as a violent murdering gang in response to a fair and popular democratic process that was leaning towards the abolition of slavery so they fought to preserve it. You and every southerner should feel the same about the stars and bars as germans do about the swastika. "A time when we rose up as one people against our rivals and was the high point of our strength... and some dork things happened that really dont need going into." Except the germans have the decency to admit their atrocities and that they were wrong.
Connor O'Brien Beings I am a Cherokee/Sioux Native American Indian thus making my ancestors Native Americans as well I really don't think slavery was a issue to my family do you Mr. Americanhistoryguy? Maybe you should re-read your history books on the Civil war here in the States. You would come to learn that your great and all mighty hero (Mr. Lincoln) wasn't interested in doing away with slavery until it became an advantage for the Union army on a political front. As far as the Great Mr. Lincoln was concerned people of color whether that be brown, red or black was no account. People of color was not allowed to join the Union army from the start, it was stated that it was a white mans war, that we should stay out of it. That in itself shows you that his ideas of bringing slavery to a end (beginning of war) was only a flux. His whole "The war over them mean Southerners wanting slaves" was nothing more than a political front that he used during the war when he seen the Confederates meant business and wasn't some push over as he expected. You see the Confederate "government" was talking with other countries to gain support in the war as they was out numbered 3 to 1 and the Union had much better supplies. Britain had not long before ceased in slavery and when Mr. Lincoln started crying and whining that it was all about slavery, they had to back out. Politically was a great move by Lincoln. Anyways I'm trying to keep this short. As far as Native Americans stance on the war, my ancestors was kind of divided. Both sides of the war offered the Natives some of their land back that had been stolen from them. Mr Lincoln promised them that he would indeed make sure they got land and promised them a territory that we now call "Oklahoma state". Well the Union won as history has it, Oklahoma isn't a Indian territory no more, it became a state and the Indians was shit on again with lies. Reason Mr Lincoln said? Was because some of the Indian Nations had fought against the Union on the Confederate side. My Great (6x) Grandfather was a Cherokee Chief in North Carolina, him and his wife and children was drove off their land and marched to Oklahoma on the trail of tears just years prior. So when the war broke out, he joined up with the Confederacy to get a bit of revenge and to get his land back. The Confederacy offered Chiefs in the Indian Nation roles in the new government they was constructing. The lands they had been taken by force was going to be handed back (though doubtful that would happened anyway) Anyways, the Confederate Flag, to a Native American? Don't have a thing to do with No African or Canadian or any other country for that fact. I love the Confederate flag because to me it shows my ancestors fought hard for their Country! They tried their best whether it was in the Union or Confederate army to get their land back. Lot of good people on both sides of the war died for their own beliefs whether they was in the right or wrong they fought for what they believed in! So God bless them all..White, red brown black green or any other dam color you can paint a human. all 700k or so of them, no matter what hair style they had or what their favorite brand of clothing was or what their favorite food was. I still love them all. The Confederate Flag to me, means as much as the American flag does. They both are equal in my eyes. My family as did many others fought both sides of the war. So you calling the Confederates "bad guys" and glad they lost, I take offensively. Though there is no winner in wars imo, only tragedy."Quoted""Slavery is not acceptable and if you're proud of the south's history of enslaving human beings, that says a lot about you regardless of your level of education."/"Quoted" You proud of the Union armies history of killing and butchering countless innocent human beings for the sole purpose of gaining land and to build a railroad? Do you not realize that the Union had slaves too?Edited: One last thing. In the end, Lincoln wasn't the one who truly freed the slaves, they freed themselves. Have a nice day you racist bastard.
Ollie Carver lincoln was always an abolitionist you dumbass. I have no sympathy for the native americans. For centuries before columbus the native tribes were content to live in a society that stagnated in tradition with no progress either intellectual, militarily, or civil. They never considered a larger world so when strangers from that world showed up they were unprepared. The price of comfort is complacency. The price of complacency is defeat. The price of defeat is to be at the mercy of the victor. The civilizations in the "old world" learned this over thousands of years of civilization and warfare. The natives in north america werent interested in a strong central government, or developing some kind of scientific method, or organizing a professional army. Disease aside (africa had the opposite, native malaria killed off invaders, and I would argue at the end of the day most native africans got it worse than native americans), there was no chance the damn aztec could match even the roman empire, let alone the british, french, or spanish. There is no excuse for the confederacy. Any arguement that dodges slavery is only as old as the civil rights movement because racism fell out of favor and southerners needed some excuse for the egg on their face. Look at the fucking source material, every rebel state claimed the defense of slavery as their primary motivation. Lincoln despised slavery and wanted it abolished, but he, and the rest of the north, was unwilling to fight a bloody war to end it. However, when the south insisted on a war regardless, the north eventually decided to go for abolition since it was fighting anyway. Lincoln himself pushed for the 13th amendment. My lineage is poor immigrant class that had members in 2 generations drafted to go fight in a civil war that didnt matter to them for a country that otherwise didnt want them in an army that felt they were expendable. While the mothers and daughters had to work in factories during the day and streets during the night to feed themselves and make rent for a shit apartment, the fathers and sons were off charging defensive lines of slavers and having their crap pay "lost in bureaucracy". So yeah, it was shit times but that doesnt make the north's cause any less. We fought to better our lot in life.
+Ollie Carver Actually no one has taken away a Confederate flag in some years. The flag that is currently controversial, the one flown over the statehouse of South Carolina and on the Dukes of Hazard, is an altered version of the battle banner, often called the Dixiecrat flag. This flag was developed in the late 1940s by the Dixiecrats in direct response to the integration of federal institutions like the military after that whole "Oh hey black people killed Nazis just like white people. Maybe we should stop being assholes to them" sentiment caught some groundswell. The Dixiecrats only ran in one presidential election, 1948, after which the rest of the southern Democrats destroyed them, bringing them back into the party after their coup failed. They ran on an almost exclusively pro-Jim Crow platform, and carried many of the deep south states. Here's an exerpt of their platform: "We stand for the segregation of the races and the racial integrity of each race; the constitutional right to choose one's associates; to accept private employment without governmental interference, and to earn one's living in any lawful way. We oppose the elimination of segregation, the repeal of miscegenation statues (interracial marriage laws), control of private employment by Federal bureaucrats called for by the misnamed civil rights program. We favor home-rule, local self-government and a minimum interference with individual rights." It shouldn't shock anyone to learn that their official title was: The States' Rights Democrat Party
EXACTLY! LIncoln single handedly set America against itself, made war against his own countrymen, invaded, pillaged and caused some 600K to perish, all for political reasons. None of which had anything thing to do truly freeing anyone. He actually made future generations less free...much less. He set the foundation for Federal Courts and their decisions over the States, the Federal gov't to become the monstrosity that it is today. He inverted, perverted and bastardized the Constitution so that States are dictated to by the US (Federal) gov't rather than the Fed. gov't doing what the States decide. All he "accomplished" could have been done without war. There was system in place to do so. He completely disregarded it. If ever there was an unnecessary war, this was it. The Founding Fathers would have had him executed for treason and tyranny. A very wise and old student of history whom I have great respect for once told me: "Whatever desired outcome results from a civil war, most assuredly could have been accomplished without it".
I dont agree with your premise that Abraham Lincoln single-handedly initiated the civil war it seems like the confederacy bears most of the responsibility for that, they were unwilling to accept the results of a fair election. the system was broken. The belligerence of the south seems to have been the chief cause of the fighting they were the first to mobilize and the first to attack at fort Sumpter. The republicans attempted to reach out to the southern states in the peace conference of 1861 by basically promising not to touch slavery in the southern states. It was the south that was unwilling to compromise not Lincoln. No matter who the government of the United was it would not have just sat back and let a half the country walk away. The US would not have recovered from that they would have become a second rate power over night. Im not saying that Lincoln was unambiguously good he certainly did act unconstitutionally and prolonged the war when he could have ended it much more quickly, however the 13th amendment was undoubtedly better than any crappy deal that would have come out of compromise between the north and the south also from a national perspective I cant see the US as being the powerful nation it is today without a strong centralized federal government with a standing army. Certainly it couldnt have fought two world wars and the cold war.
Caley Ferguson "I cant see the US as being the powerful nation it is today without a strong centralized federal government with a standing army. Certainly it couldnt have fought two world wars and the cold war." So if we hadn't murdered hundreds of thousands of people, we wouldn't be able to murder hundreds of thousands of people? Or give ourselves an overbearing government that suppresses our freedoms? Sorry if I don't see the logic behind that.
2:10 is a bit misleading... Sure the Fugitive Slave Law was 'on the books' but only for the United States of America, which the southern states claimed they were no longer a part of, hence why Union General Benjamin Butler held contraband slaves and did not hand them over when told to... Excerpt: Cary got down to business. “I am informed,” he said, “that three Negroes belonging to Colonel Mallory have escaped within your lines. I am Colonel Mallory’s agent and have charge of his property. What do you mean to do with those Negroes?” “I intend to hold them,” Butler said. “Do you mean, then, to set aside your constitutional obligation to return them?” Even the dour Butler must have found it hard to suppress a smile. This was, of course, a question he had expected. And he had prepared what he thought was a fairly clever answer. “I mean to take Virginia (the state itself) at her word,” he said. “I am under no constitutional obligations to a foreign country, which Virginia now claims to be.” “But you say we cannot secede,” Cary retorted, “and so you cannot consistently detain the Negroes.” “But you say you have seceded,” Butler said, “so you cannot consistently claim them. I shall hold these Negroes as contraband of war, since they are engaged in the construction of your battery (an artillery arrangement) and are claimed as your property.”
I do Love what Crash Course does, Edutainment hasn't been so good since Bill Nye was on Television. I Also Chuckle every time John says "In the Green Parts of Not America"
Well, HE didn't, to be fair. It was passed by an Act of Congress and ratified by Secretary of State William Seward. Of course, Lincoln was probably a strong impetus for that, but similar legislation probably would have been passed with an imminent Union victory all the same.
It wouldn't have been a guarantee. And it would have taken a much longer time for the complete abolition of slavery in the US which would have been a bad thing for African Americans and the Union(partly because the South would've still been thriving and it would been much more difficult to placate them during and after the war). The Union itself was divided over the idea that slavery was a major problem and that it should be abolished. There wasn't enough Radical abolitionists and many in the Union didn't even care about the slaves(including those in the government). They weren't much different from the Confederates on their beliefs on slavery. Yeah Lincoln initially wanted to deport the African to live in and colonize Libya but they adamantly refused and demanded the rights of citizenship and to be able to fight for their freedom and dignity. Whatever Lincoln's thoughts or reasons were for passing the Emancipation Proclamation, it effectively freed a majority of the slaves and allowed African Americans to fight in the war. The 13th Amendment was passed by the Senate but almost failed until Lincoln's administration managed to get a majority of Congress to vote on it.The 13th led to the creation of the 14th and the 15th Amendments which are monumental laws in the US constitution. Sorry this is long but I just had to prove the point that Lincoln wasn't so terrible like some other commentators are implying.
The Federal government had jurisdiction over the seceded states. What it didn't have at the time was the ability to enforce that jurisdiction. The Lady Gaga/North Korea analogy does not apply. The Emancipation Proclamation WAS enforced as the Union armies advanced. I'm disappointed you missed that, usually you're good at refuting such misconceptions.
"The Federal government had jurisdiction over the seceded states" Except it didn't, because seceded states were by definition no longer part of the federal government.
Not so, not so! True that's what the various secession ordinances read, but those ordinances were unconstitutional. They did not separate their respective states from the Union, anymore than a cranky little kid screaming "You're not my mommy and daddy! I hate you I hate you I hate you!", locking himself in his room, and refusing to come out for dinner is an emancipated minor. No one who didn't actually pass those ordinances believed otherwise. I quote from one of the many, many primary source documents which illustrate this fact: "We do hereby, in the name and on the behalf of the good people of Virginia, solemnly declare . . . that all acts of [the Secession] Convention and Executive, tending to separate this Commonwealth from the United States, or to levy and carry on war against them, are without authority and void; and the offices of all who adhere to the said Convention and Executive, whether legislative, executive or judicial, are vacated.” The author is John Carlile, a pro-slavery Democratic state legislator who attended the Wheeling Convention in June 1861. That convention, which passed Carlile's resolution unanimously, was called by unionist Virginians to repudiate the state's secession ordinance. Similar conventions were held in Tennessee, Alabama, North Carolina and Louisiana, though the Virginian was by far the most successful. This is due mainly to the military situation: Wheeling is easier to reach from the loyal states of Ohio, Pennsylvania, and Maryland than it is from Tidewater Virginia (remember Wheeling was in Virginia itself at the time). Of course, if what you say were true, the war would never have happened at all.
Ryan Masad Of course not; but then, the two independence movements had so little in common I'm not sure why you'd associate the one with the other to begin with. Both were about local governments claiming the right to reject the authority of a central government, but the parallels end there. If you want to compare Bieber to the Beatles you'll have a much deeper pool to draw from. The importance of this point cannot be overstated, and if you're not convinced I can go on at length about the very dissimilar political, legal, and moral circumstances; but before I do, I must ask one question, and forgive me if it's an offensive question, but I don't know you and this is something of a case of once bitten twice shy: Are you actually interested in discussing this, or are you just trolling?
aperson22222 If the North lost the war the EP would have been a rubber stamp. The South would never give up its economy to the North. Mr. Hinton is right on.
Looking back at this old video, John should have also mentioned that the Boshin War in Japan happened about 3 years after the end of the ACW. This essentially united the country under the Emperor, making it another case of nation-building. He does so in another video but it's a bit more relevant as the US, alongside France and Britain, was modernizing Japan through forced trade.
OK, I like most of these videos, but I have one correction on this one. Nobody surrendered in THE Appomattox Court House. The name of the little town was Appomattox Court House.
I will say that Lincoln didn’t actually have the power to free those slaves in the Union. He was president not king. The constitution puts strict limits on his powers. The only way he could legally free any slaves is if they were a resource of an enemy during war times. Which is exactly what he did. To free slaves within union territory required a constitutional amendment.
Not to just say "this," but, well... this. The President can distribute resources held by a hostile force, not fundamentally change citizenship and property laws by decree.
wppb50 and his decree redistributed them into freedom. At least until the end of the war if slavery was not abolished by then when the courts would tear apart his decree, but they didn’t have to because with the 13th amendment it didn’t really do anything anymore.
The point of the mystery document is to introduce a primary document into the proceedings. Often the best way to study an event is to examine the experience of the people who lived through that event. -stan
6 Y E A R S LATER omg video on civil war. Other students = bruh
@@ChannelName40 haha its quarantine and we have online school like what else would we do lol
Thank you CrashCourse! After two hours worth of videos, I got a 95 on my AP US-History exam!
*****
so edgy
Lincoln also ordered the Union Army to protect freed slaves, made sure they treated freed slaves as equals while in the Union Army, and encouraged the border states to free their slaves.
There were two constants in Lincoln. The first is that he hated slavery and wanted it gone, and the second is that he did not want his country to collapse. When it was collapsing, he used that as the perfect avenue to abolish slavery by pushing through the Thirteenth Amendment.
Dude was honestly kinda brilliant.
Lincoln just wanted the war to end, he even said if he could end the war without freeing the slaves or freeing some and not others he would, the point in that being he would do whatever ever it took to retain the union.
Personally, I don't like him very much. He basically gave up on the work of the last 6 presidents by letting a civil war happen, which killed hundrends of thousends of people. And yet he's remembered as one of the greatest presisdents ever, for winning a war it was his job to avoid.
M. Douglas how did he "give up" on the work of the last 6 presidents? 1. States had already seceded from the union before he was sworn in. They were already illegally in open rebellion and he had to do something about it to make sure it would be recognized as NOT ok. 2. It's not like the last 6 presidents had worked on much to stop it from happening. All compromises were worked mainly in Congress and either way was completely temporary as far as history is concerned in the sense it was very clear slavery was not going to live in America and it was already starting to be dragged on long enough. 3. It was NOT his job to avoid a war. War was basically present by the time he was sworn in and it was his job to preserve the union and that is what he did. He didn't just let the Confederacy leave illegally and do what they wanted, no, he fought to bring them back to the Union and bring them back to actually modern ideas such as Slavery not being ok
@@belizbaloglu4400 - Lincoln had very strong opinions on slavery, very well documented.
Uhhh, no
Why are there no knock-knock jokes about america? Because, freedom rings.
S t o p
crying
And rubbing your eyes
Ring Ring, Ring Ring,
"Who is it?"
*breaks down door* "GIVE US ALL YOUR OIL!"
STUPID.
If John Green could be my history teacher, I would love history class. He makes it so interesting & easy to understand!
I am actually so happy that we are having intelligent debates on youtube. Stay awesome crash course comment section
Read my mind.
N word
Nice
what debate?
On meeting her, Lincoln said to Harriet Beecher Stowe, 'So you're the little woman who wrote the book that started this great war.' ...Just throwing out random trivia.
dropUrPeaches And what a great book it is.
Pylades Drunk thats cool.
He was trying to blame someone else and give her too much credit.
@@annann2000 Exactly! It was actually "JOHN BROWN"
who started the Sivul Wor :P
Heard this in AP History
That soldier shooting the Slave Law at 2:08 is one of the most badass things I've ever seen a cartoon character do.
ikr
A close second being those awsome freeze frames they have in the new voltron after a boss goes down
Say what you want about Lincoln, but he freed more slaves than every single one of our founding fathers who wrote the constitution that said all men are created equal. If our founding fathers had stopped slavery when they should have there would not have been a civil war. At least Lincoln had the balls to get it started and was against slavery from the very first time he saw a slave when he was a boy.
The problem for them though, was in order to get the southern colonies onboard with the idea of an independent nation, they had to kick the can of slavery down the road to another generation. The writing was on the wall, the British Empire was in the process of ending slavery across the empire, this was motivation for the south to break free of their grasp, the founding fathers not mentioning slavery either way helped make the decision southern colonies needed to make to join the northern colonies in breaking free from the empire easier.
Lincoln was originally not an abolitionist, but simply wanted to prevent slavery from spreading (the Republican Party's premise at the time)
@Corey Mensinger The Constitution does have a Fugitive Slave Clause tho
@Corey Mensinger as opposed to the acceleration of independence...
Lincoln actually had slaves himself before he learned about what slavery really is. But I agree with you
Is John Green missing a tooth on his bottom row? I keep thinking that I'm catching a glimpse, but no concrete evidence.
I honestly would like to see a crash course Asian history. China, India, Korea, Japan, and Singapore have been glossed over a bit by the series thus far. We've already gotten a fairly thorough coverage of western history. As an added bonus imagine how hilarious John's pronunciations will be, I rest my case.
Was that Conan O' Brian and Stephen Colbert in the thought bubble?
+SuperHamsterhuey HAHAHA YEA IT WAS!
+SuperHamsterhuey oh my god thank god i thought i was the only one getting these references xDD
where is colbert?
above the fireplace at 2:25. a reference to his then current show 'Colbert Report
Do they not think that there are many of us who actually study the civil war. Some people watch a movie about the acw and think they are experts. Good one SuperHamsterhuey.
Did anyone else notice the captions at 8:26 - 8:34 ?
about the land we stole. LOL
no i did not thanks
Because we stole it! LOL
Yeah, I was replaying it and I was like did I miss something??
I WATCHED IT WITH THE CAPTIONS AND I THOUGHT THAT IT WAS FUNNY.
I’m so thankful that everyone came to a solution in society today. Every race deserves respect ✊🏽
I don't know about you, but I get chills listening to John Green recite the last part of the Gettysburg Address. Even brings a tear in my eye. Such a great recitation and address.
Conan O'Brien's string dance cameo is the best thing to ever happen and it makes me love Crash Course (and Thought Cafe) 1,000% more.
These videos are great. They really give a lot of context, cover many angles, and make you think. I feel like I'm gaining a deeper and more in depth understanding of history - and the present day- by watching these. Thanks John and the Crash Course team for this incredible resource.
As a proud citizen of the Green Parts of Not America, I'd like to thank John Green for providing us Green-Parts-of-Not-Americans education on these important topics.
Tomorrow I have the Ap us exam... Wish me luck.
+Malik Meri same tbh
Same
+Malik Meri same same
so how it went?
Malik Meri good luck
If I watch 12 of these a day I can tooottaalllyyy cram this review in before my AP test Friday... right?
I had to rewind because I got distracted by Conan's string dance
The best part of the Gettysburg Address is that it doesn't specify which side's soldiers would not have died in vain. It encompasses all the dead, acknowledging that, despite one side had to lose, their sacrifices were still important and their dead would still be mourned.
Not at all surprised that Lincoln had a portrait of Stephen Colbert in the White House. US History obviously would never have happened without him.
Don't stop doing videos!! You show how exciting history can be! Do current events or disputed events or anything
Lady Gaga ruling North Korea would've been amazing tbh
Marvin Lee naw, then everyone would have to wear ridiculous clothes. Insta-revolt.
Then they'd get a capitalist system, or just fuse with South Korea since they believe in the same things. Maybe it wouldn't be that bad. Unless the two hate each other for other reasons.
Shadow Wolf Fashion-forward and capitalist is basically South Korea actually
Marvin Lee I know. We don't ship stuff to communist countries, but South Korea has Starcraft 2 as a national sport. Maybe I should've clarified--just fuse with South Korea because then they'd both belief in the same things. Though I'm not sure if communism was the only reason the two nations split or not.
Shadow Wolf The nations were split after WWII because soviets took over the north and the us took over the south after Japan, korea's overlord, was defeated
Noah W. I'm not sure took is entirely the right word to use, it was a consequence of the surrender (north of the 38th parallell=surrender to soviet and south=surrender to the US), with neither side following the wishes of the UN and previous agreement between Roosvelt, Churchill and Chiang Kai-shek (Kuomintang/Nationalist China/Republic of China)
Gotta love Union soldier Conan O'Brien 1:58
2:00 Conan! Who else got the reference?!?
Even an orphan immigrant made a difference! Alex, the north told your story!
FINALLY! SOME FELLOW HAMIL-NERDS! HELLO, MY BRETHREN!
why did I almost start crying at this comment
I just watched 24 of these in a row. Currently cramming for my APUSH midterm. I am woking on my sixth cup of coffee. It is the middle of the night. My exam is tomorrow.
Moral of the story - DO NOT TRY TO LEARN ALL OF AMERICAN HISTORY UP TO THE CIVIL WAR THE NIGHT BEFORE A MAJOR TEST.
you should do a crash course: Greek and Roman mythology and gods
Is that drone always flying around behind the White House in the Thought Bubble bits? I like it.
O-bomb-a
"Britain will never support or even recognise our nation the way it is. We should have freed the slaves and then fired on Fort Sumter."
- James Longstreet
RiderofRiddermark James Longstreet. One of the great tactical geniuses of U.S history along with Nathanael Greene and the Union admiral that organized the blockade, such a shame Longstreet was on the wrong side. Even before the battle of Gettysburg he strongly advised against it.
GETAFE LEÓN Nathanael Greene is the only general in the video game Liberty or Death with 100 Tactics statistic. Other notable high Tactics generals, Daniel Morgan, William Thompson, and William Washington... Anyways it's a pretty awesome game lol. Washington himself has like 60 tactics but 98 Leadership and 100 Discipline stat... The best General in Britain is probably Guy Johnson or Henry Clinton.
+RomulessI Wow. Liberty of Death. That's an old classic. A rarity, a Koei strategy game not about Japan or China.
Jeremy Fridy That and New Horizons Uncharted Waters probably two of the best old games ever made on those gen consoles.
I don't know. Despite everything, Lincoln's still by far my favorite president.
What are the odds...
Ben Barrett 1 in 45
Hi Ben, lol
Samuel Neirink thats not fair to say. Im not a fan of trump, but his presidency is not over.
Radon Box 1 in 44 unless you want to count Cleveland as two different presidents. But I digress. Lincoln would be just about everyone's I'd think.
OMG, Conan and Colbert in the thought bubble; my mind was blown by the knowledge and excellence.
Anyone else notice Lincoln has a bottle of Jack Daniels with a straw when rocking in his chair?
John, thanks again for always including these amazing, short to the point, videos! My students and I love them!
8:06 "Abraham Lincoln was the first president to truly expand the power of the executive."
So..."King Andrew" gets no credit for this?
People tend to forget King Andrew I for some reason :/
I like to think that all presidents did.
You could say President Polk did as well.
John could be saying that Jackson just used powers that were technically granted to the president, but probably weren't meant to be used in the way he used them. Lincoln took that a step further and actually used executive powers he didn't have. Though that feels to me like just a semantic difference, so I have no idea what John meant.
However, while Lincoln wasn't the first president to expand presidential powers (Polk and Jackson were both mentioned), he probably expanded them the most.
he means u.s prestident
Students 100 years ago: Ah, the civil war. A terrible war between the union and the confederates over slavery and freedom.
Students today: Civil War! I saw that movie. That airport battle was pretty cool.
These videos are a great quick study of so many historical issues! As a history teacher having to conduct my classes from home during quarantine, THANK YOU for making this great resource available.
im probably the only nerd watching this not for homework
samuel rappaport I wish I could tell you that you're wrong
samuel rappaport no, you are not.
no bro half of us are.. I hope
samuel rappaport nope
samuel rappaport you’re not the only one, ap world/us teachers have legit given crash course videos for homework though, it’s becoming more and more common
yo i just found out he's THE John Green author who wrote the fault in our stars, im in shock
I love the conan o’brein refrence
5:03 The Call of Duty Modern Warfare 3 symbol (without the "3" though) 😂
Because I find it incredible. Click this through.. Literally the most intelligent debate I have ever found on youtube and I am in awe of the people having it. Also think it's rather one sided because one side has all the valid points, BUT STILL IN AWE.
I want to send a huge thank you to the Crash Course team. Yesterday I received my mystery package from the Project for Awesome and inside was script for this episode. It was a wonderful glimpse into the hard work that each of you do to make an episode come to life! Thank you for Crash Course, the project for awesome, and all that you do to decrease world suck!!! It is an hounour to call myself a NerdFighter! DFTBA
Can you make math videos??
I second this😂😂
Agreed
Everyone try to spread so we can get more and more support.
If possible please do Alg 1 to Calc B/C
+
just use khan academy.
Here's another one. The war indirectly led to our acquisition of Alaska. During the war, the Union navy was occupied with blockading the Southern ports, which left the Eastern coast open to potential attack by Britain. So the Union sought aid from an unlikely source: Tsar Alexander II (who was an admirer of Lincoln, by the way). So Alexander sent the imperial Russian navy to safeguard the U.S. coast. But when the war was over, the Tsar wanted to be reimbursed for the cost. But it would not have gone over well with the public to learn that the Union, presumably fighting for such things as freedom and democracy, was being assisted by the supreme autocrat, "Tsar of All the Russias." So a deal was worked out. Russia possessed Alaska. It was a financial drain, and they wanted to get rid of it. So we bought it, in 1867. The deal was named "Seward's Folly," after the Secretary of State. Of course, 25 years later, gold was discovered in Alaska, and I'm sure the Russians were kicking themselves for having given it up. This comes from, "The Unseen Hand," by Ralph Epperson.
Didn't know about the Russian navy protecting the Union. That's pretty interesting.
tinkandtory It goes to show: No matter what spy movies or Call of Duty games have come out, Russia has actually been cooler than people make it out to be. Much like the U.S has had good and bad leaders, so has Russia. Just don't colour the whole country as bad based off a few crummy leaders. (Cough cough, Stalin)
Clyde Wary There's a good reason for this not being mentioned. John Green does not acknowledge the existence of Canada's Tail...
Clyde Wary Cool fact, US has acquired many territories. They bought all Louisiana to the Spain crown and many of former Mexican territories like Nevada, California, Texas, Montana etc were annexed in war. Just to think US was just a few colonies.
The Eternal Pagan Soul
This is not relating to the topic at hand.
Railroad tie?
Oh, you mean a sleeper!
i had to google it too
Man, you sure have improved the objectivity. Thank you
Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 1860
A chance to destroy some slave holding Johnny Rebs? Sign me up for that!
Monitors of Decorum & Decency me too!
I think I saw Conan O'Brien dancing and Stephen Colbert on the wall :) Great presentations John Green! I don't always agree with your view but certainly you provide a great amount of information. By the way, do you have a presentation on the war against Paraguay that you mentioned?
who needs to study for IB when you can just watch these?! * chuckles nervously, sweats profusely *
the only thing that stuck in my head ”North Korea will be ruled by lady gaga” lol
I must say. I love American History. I LOVE it! I just love learning about it, but traditional textbooks just don't help sometimes. These videos are great for learning. Thank you!
Paraguai war and Canudos war. Important ones, not? Worthy of an episode? And the book is an absolute masterpiece!
When he said that part about America announcing that Lady Gaga would rule North Korea from now on I was like: "wait, did they?" And that's all we need to know about American politics
Some things I always notice the critics both then and now like to ignore: 1. the Constitution DOES grant the federal government the power to suspend habeus corpus in time of rebellion or invasion-granted, the framers weren't very clear on just what constitutes a rebellion and which branch of the federal government does that power reside with. In point of fact, nowhere in the Constitution does it specifically say that "secession is not rebellion," or even that states have the right to secede. And 2. Lincoln actually did get congressional authorization for suspending habeus corpus, and with bipartisan support at that.
Daniel Ryan You were doing great, till you got to the part where you said basically "this does NOT say that this is NOT that". If your statement sounds like you are trying to prove a negative, you are going to lose peoples attention quick. You need to restate the second sentence of point 1.
Daniel Ryan Where does it say that about habeus corpus?
***** Its called the Suspension Clause-and it does grant the government the power to suspend Habeus Corpus "In times of invasion or rebellion."
stevo stendek Tell that to Honest Abe himself-because that is pretty much what his critics at the time threw against him.
1:38 actually you're wrong. The government determined that they aren't allowed to succeed without approval from congress so technically the confederates were still part of the union in terms of international law. Therefore, the Union did have the authority to tell the confederate what to do but listening to that is another story.
Sort of, the Confederacy may have been part of the U.S. according to the U.S., however the Union had no actual power over the Confederacy until the war ended.
He’s not wrong. If the Emancipation Proclamation freed all the slaves that itself would be an admission that the states had indeed actually left the union which Lincoln maintained hadn’t occurred to begin with.
I just had a great idea. Wouldn't it be amazing if CrashCourse made a podcast series?
Got to love watching these in chronological order and realizing you address a comment I make in a previous video several videos later.
Dear Team of Historians,
As said in the video, "All together the total cost of the war for the Union was 6.7 billion dollars." I was wondering, is that meant in the currency used back then, or the modern currency we have today.
I would like to thank you for this video. I am southern born and lived here in the south all my life.I have always tried to be a good person and I never harbored no racism in me. I dislike people or like people only by their actions, not by skin tone or hair length or what gender they are.
Lately they want to take our Confederate flag away and make us feel ashamed to have come from the south. I have always loved the Rebel flag and will continue to do so! The Civil war helped to shape and mold America into what it is today. All them people, 680k+ that died in the Civil war ,I'm sure don't want us to just forget them and to think of them as a disgrace upon our nation!
So the way I see it, the American Flag and the Confederate flag both, is what made our country.. Fly them both and be proud!
No, the confederacy is shameful. It was born as a violent murdering gang in response to a fair and popular democratic process that was leaning towards the abolition of slavery so they fought to preserve it. You and every southerner should feel the same about the stars and bars as germans do about the swastika. "A time when we rose up as one people against our rivals and was the high point of our strength... and some dork things happened that really dont need going into." Except the germans have the decency to admit their atrocities and that they were wrong.
Connor O'Brien Beings I am a Cherokee/Sioux Native American Indian thus making my ancestors Native Americans as well I really don't think slavery was a issue to my family do you Mr. Americanhistoryguy? Maybe you should re-read your history books on the Civil war here in the States. You would come to learn that your great and all mighty hero (Mr. Lincoln) wasn't interested in doing away with slavery until it became an advantage for the Union army on a political front. As far as the Great Mr. Lincoln was concerned people of color whether that be brown, red or black was no account. People of color was not allowed to join the Union army from the start, it was stated that it was a white mans war, that we should stay out of it. That in itself shows you that his ideas of bringing slavery to a end (beginning of war) was only a flux.
His whole "The war over them mean Southerners wanting slaves" was nothing more than a political front that he used during the war when he seen the Confederates meant business and wasn't some push over as he expected. You see the Confederate "government" was talking with other countries to gain support in the war as they was out numbered 3 to 1 and the Union had much better supplies. Britain had not long before ceased in slavery and when Mr. Lincoln started crying and whining that it was all about slavery, they had to back out. Politically was a great move by Lincoln. Anyways I'm trying to keep this short.
As far as Native Americans stance on the war, my ancestors was kind of divided. Both sides of the war offered the Natives some of their land back that had been stolen from them. Mr Lincoln promised them that he would indeed make sure they got land and promised them a territory that we now call "Oklahoma state". Well the Union won as history has it, Oklahoma isn't a Indian territory no more, it became a state and the Indians was shit on again with lies. Reason Mr Lincoln said? Was because some of the Indian Nations had fought against the Union on the Confederate side.
My Great (6x) Grandfather was a Cherokee Chief in North Carolina, him and his wife and children was drove off their land and marched to Oklahoma on the trail of tears just years prior. So when the war broke out, he joined up with the Confederacy to get a bit of revenge and to get his land back. The Confederacy offered Chiefs in the Indian Nation roles in the new government they was constructing. The lands they had been taken by force was going to be handed back (though doubtful that would happened anyway)
Anyways, the Confederate Flag, to a Native American? Don't have a thing to do with No African or Canadian or any other country for that fact. I love the Confederate flag because to me it shows my ancestors fought hard for their Country! They tried their best whether it was in the Union or Confederate army to get their land back. Lot of good people on both sides of the war died for their own beliefs whether they was in the right or wrong they fought for what they believed in! So God bless them all..White, red brown black green or any other dam color you can paint a human. all 700k or so of them, no matter what hair style they had or what their favorite brand of clothing was or what their favorite food was. I still love them all.
The Confederate Flag to me, means as much as the American flag does. They both are equal in my eyes. My family as did many others fought both sides of the war. So you calling the Confederates "bad guys" and glad they lost, I take offensively.
Though there is no winner in wars imo, only tragedy."Quoted""Slavery is not acceptable and if you're proud of the south's history of enslaving human beings, that says a lot about you regardless of your level of education."/"Quoted"
You proud of the Union armies history of killing and butchering countless innocent human beings for the sole purpose of gaining land and to build a railroad? Do you not realize that the Union had slaves too?Edited: One last thing. In the end, Lincoln wasn't the one who truly freed the slaves, they freed themselves.
Have a nice day you racist bastard.
Ollie Carver lincoln was always an abolitionist you dumbass. I have no sympathy for the native americans. For centuries before columbus the native tribes were content to live in a society that stagnated in tradition with no progress either intellectual, militarily, or civil. They never considered a larger world so when strangers from that world showed up they were unprepared. The price of comfort is complacency. The price of complacency is defeat. The price of defeat is to be at the mercy of the victor. The civilizations in the "old world" learned this over thousands of years of civilization and warfare. The natives in north america werent interested in a strong central government, or developing some kind of scientific method, or organizing a professional army. Disease aside (africa had the opposite, native malaria killed off invaders, and I would argue at the end of the day most native africans got it worse than native americans), there was no chance the damn aztec could match even the roman empire, let alone the british, french, or spanish.
There is no excuse for the confederacy. Any arguement that dodges slavery is only as old as the civil rights movement because racism fell out of favor and southerners needed some excuse for the egg on their face. Look at the fucking source material, every rebel state claimed the defense of slavery as their primary motivation. Lincoln despised slavery and wanted it abolished, but he, and the rest of the north, was unwilling to fight a bloody war to end it. However, when the south insisted on a war regardless, the north eventually decided to go for abolition since it was fighting anyway. Lincoln himself pushed for the 13th amendment.
My lineage is poor immigrant class that had members in 2 generations drafted to go fight in a civil war that didnt matter to them for a country that otherwise didnt want them in an army that felt they were expendable. While the mothers and daughters had to work in factories during the day and streets during the night to feed themselves and make rent for a shit apartment, the fathers and sons were off charging defensive lines of slavers and having their crap pay "lost in bureaucracy". So yeah, it was shit times but that doesnt make the north's cause any less. We fought to better our lot in life.
Connor O'Brien If you want to write to someone and have them read it, don't call them names in the first sentence maybe. Have a good day.
+Ollie Carver Actually no one has taken away a Confederate flag in some years. The flag that is currently controversial, the one flown over the statehouse of South Carolina and on the Dukes of Hazard, is an altered version of the battle banner, often called the Dixiecrat flag.
This flag was developed in the late 1940s by the Dixiecrats in direct response to the integration of federal institutions like the military after that whole "Oh hey black people killed Nazis just like white people. Maybe we should stop being assholes to them" sentiment caught some groundswell. The Dixiecrats only ran in one presidential election, 1948, after which the rest of the southern Democrats destroyed them, bringing them back into the party after their coup failed. They ran on an almost exclusively pro-Jim Crow platform, and carried many of the deep south states.
Here's an exerpt of their platform:
"We stand for the segregation of the races and the racial integrity of each race; the constitutional right to choose one's associates; to accept private employment without governmental interference, and to earn one's living in any lawful way. We oppose the elimination of segregation, the repeal of miscegenation statues (interracial marriage laws), control of private employment by Federal bureaucrats called for by the misnamed civil rights program. We favor home-rule, local self-government and a minimum interference with individual rights."
It shouldn't shock anyone to learn that their official title was: The States' Rights Democrat Party
Conan and mongoltage thanks John!
I heard a great tip. Slow the playback down to .75 if your students are having trouble with his fast talk!
We need more Crash Course history! More World history! May I dare even suggest....Canadian History?
IB Aspects of history of the Americas paper 3 tomorrow....
me too! good luck!!!
American is prove to the fact that the highest achievement attainable is freedom
"ill take my coat and go", i wish i can say that at school.
Thank you for those crash courses, they are very helpul to understand better the American History
These videos are saving my AH right now thank you
The funny part is that a few month after this video (December 2013) Italy elected another president :'D
and that same prime minister resigned so they're going to have a new one soon
Anyone else notice the Emancipation Proclamation could have happened without the deaths of hundreds of thousands of soldiers?
EXACTLY! LIncoln single handedly set America against itself, made war against his own countrymen, invaded, pillaged and caused some 600K to perish, all for political reasons. None of which had anything thing to do truly freeing anyone. He actually made future generations less free...much less. He set the foundation for Federal Courts and their decisions over the States, the Federal gov't to become the monstrosity that it is today. He inverted, perverted and bastardized the Constitution so that States are dictated to by the US (Federal) gov't rather than the Fed. gov't doing what the States decide. All he "accomplished" could have been done without war. There was system in place to do so. He completely disregarded it. If ever there was an unnecessary war, this was it. The Founding Fathers would have had him executed for treason and tyranny.
A very wise and old student of history whom I have great respect for once told me: "Whatever desired outcome results from a civil war, most assuredly could have been accomplished without it".
I dont agree with your premise that Abraham Lincoln single-handedly initiated the civil war it seems like the confederacy bears most of the responsibility for that, they were unwilling to accept the results of a fair election. the system was broken.
The belligerence of the south seems to have been the chief cause of the fighting they were the first to mobilize and the first to attack at fort Sumpter. The republicans attempted to reach out to the southern states in the peace conference of 1861 by basically promising not to touch slavery in the southern states. It was the south that was unwilling to compromise not Lincoln.
No matter who the government of the United was it would not have just sat back and let a half the country walk away. The US would not have recovered from that they would have become a second rate power over night.
Im not saying that Lincoln was unambiguously good he certainly did act unconstitutionally and prolonged the war when he could have ended it much more quickly, however the 13th amendment was undoubtedly better than any crappy deal that would have come out of compromise between the north and the south also from a national perspective I cant see the US as being the powerful nation it is today without a strong centralized federal government with a standing army. Certainly it couldnt have fought two world wars and the cold war.
Caley Ferguson "I cant see the US as being the powerful nation it is today without a strong centralized federal government with a standing army. Certainly it couldnt have fought two world wars and the cold war."
So if we hadn't murdered hundreds of thousands of people, we wouldn't be able to murder hundreds of thousands of people? Or give ourselves an overbearing government that suppresses our freedoms? Sorry if I don't see the logic behind that.
Rev0lutionIsMyName so it is ok if the government that is repressing your freedom is a local government (t
No, it couldn't , the south started the war before the emancipation proclamation, so people would have died regardless.
2:10 is a bit misleading... Sure the Fugitive Slave Law was 'on the books' but only for the United States of America, which the southern states claimed they were no longer a part of, hence why Union General Benjamin Butler held contraband slaves and did not hand them over when told to...
Excerpt:
Cary got down to business. “I am informed,” he said, “that three Negroes belonging to Colonel Mallory have escaped within your lines. I am Colonel Mallory’s agent and have charge of his property. What do you mean to do with those Negroes?”
“I intend to hold them,” Butler said.
“Do you mean, then, to set aside your constitutional obligation to return them?”
Even the dour Butler must have found it hard to suppress a smile. This was, of course, a question he had expected. And he had prepared what he thought was a fairly clever answer.
“I mean to take Virginia (the state itself) at her word,” he said. “I am under no constitutional obligations to a foreign country, which Virginia now claims to be.”
“But you say we cannot secede,” Cary retorted, “and so you cannot consistently detain the Negroes.”
“But you say you have seceded,” Butler said, “so you cannot consistently claim them. I shall hold these Negroes as contraband of war, since they are engaged in the construction of your battery (an artillery arrangement) and are claimed as your property.”
This may have been the best one yet!!
I do Love what Crash Course does, Edutainment hasn't been so good since Bill Nye was on Television.
I Also Chuckle every time John says "In the Green Parts of Not America"
He passed the 13th amendment though...
Well, HE didn't, to be fair. It was passed by an Act of Congress and ratified by Secretary of State William Seward. Of course, Lincoln was probably a strong impetus for that, but similar legislation probably would have been passed with an imminent Union victory all the same.
It wouldn't have been a guarantee. And it would have taken a much longer time for the complete abolition of slavery in the US which would have been a bad thing for African Americans and the Union(partly because the South would've still been thriving and it would been much more difficult to placate them during and after the war). The Union itself was divided over the idea that slavery was a major problem and that it should be abolished. There wasn't enough Radical abolitionists and many in the Union didn't even care about the slaves(including those in the government). They weren't much different from the Confederates on their beliefs on slavery. Yeah Lincoln initially wanted to deport the African to live in and colonize Libya but they adamantly refused and demanded the rights of citizenship and to be able to fight for their freedom and dignity. Whatever Lincoln's thoughts or reasons were for passing the Emancipation Proclamation, it effectively freed a majority of the slaves and allowed African Americans to fight in the war. The 13th Amendment was passed by the Senate but almost failed until Lincoln's administration managed to get a majority of Congress to vote on it.The 13th led to the creation of the 14th and the 15th Amendments which are monumental laws in the US constitution. Sorry this is long but I just had to prove the point that Lincoln wasn't so terrible like some other commentators are implying.
UberMan5000
Nicely done! Kudos to a real historian!
***** Er... You're sarcastic, right?
TIL Conan O'Brien fought in the Civil War.
The Federal government had jurisdiction over the seceded states. What it didn't have at the time was the ability to enforce that jurisdiction. The Lady Gaga/North Korea analogy does not apply.
The Emancipation Proclamation WAS enforced as the Union armies advanced. I'm disappointed you missed that, usually you're good at refuting such misconceptions.
"The Federal government had jurisdiction over the seceded states"
Except it didn't, because seceded states were by definition no longer part of the federal government.
Not so, not so! True that's what the various secession ordinances read, but those ordinances were unconstitutional. They did not separate their respective states from the Union, anymore than a cranky little kid screaming "You're not my mommy and daddy! I hate you I hate you I hate you!", locking himself in his room, and refusing to come out for dinner is an emancipated minor. No one who didn't actually pass those ordinances believed otherwise. I quote from one of the many, many primary source documents which illustrate this fact:
"We do hereby, in the name and on the behalf of the good people of Virginia, solemnly declare . . . that all acts of [the Secession] Convention and Executive, tending to separate this Commonwealth from the United States, or to levy and carry on war against them, are without authority and void; and the offices of all who adhere to the said Convention and Executive, whether legislative, executive or judicial, are vacated.”
The author is John Carlile, a pro-slavery Democratic state legislator who attended the Wheeling Convention in June 1861. That convention, which passed Carlile's resolution unanimously, was called by unionist Virginians to repudiate the state's secession ordinance. Similar conventions were held in Tennessee, Alabama, North Carolina and Louisiana, though the Virginian was by far the most successful. This is due mainly to the military situation: Wheeling is easier to reach from the loyal states of Ohio, Pennsylvania, and Maryland than it is from Tidewater Virginia (remember Wheeling was in Virginia itself at the time).
Of course, if what you say were true, the war would never have happened at all.
aperson22222 Would you say the same about the 1776 Declaration of independance i wonder...
Ryan Masad
Of course not; but then, the two independence movements had so little in common I'm not sure why you'd associate the one with the other to begin with. Both were about local governments claiming the right to reject the authority of a central government, but the parallels end there. If you want to compare Bieber to the Beatles you'll have a much deeper pool to draw from.
The importance of this point cannot be overstated, and if you're not convinced I can go on at length about the very dissimilar political, legal, and moral circumstances; but before I do, I must ask one question, and forgive me if it's an offensive question, but I don't know you and this is something of a case of once bitten twice shy: Are you actually interested in discussing this, or are you just trolling?
aperson22222
If the North lost the war the EP would have been a rubber stamp. The South would never give up its economy to the North. Mr. Hinton is right on.
Looking back at this old video, John should have also mentioned that the Boshin War in Japan happened about 3 years after the end of the ACW. This essentially united the country under the Emperor, making it another case of nation-building. He does so in another video but it's a bit more relevant as the US, alongside France and Britain, was modernizing Japan through forced trade.
Best episode yet! Very nice job. Very relevant to my life.
Looks like Ken Burns left out one of the primary elements of the Civil War: THE MONGOLS!
Also, at least 50 Chinese people who fought on the two sides, which is close
John Green's Polo game strong
2:26 Stephen Colbert painting too.
OK, I like most of these videos, but I have one correction on this one. Nobody surrendered in THE Appomattox Court House. The name of the little town was Appomattox Court House.
3:35 Lincoln looks so bored in that picture. He's like "You keep talking. Why?"
It's Colbert's portrait at 2:15!
who's Colbert ?
Crash Course Algebra! PLEASE!
lol
that would be an utter waste of time
+Dante Sanaei probs not for the ones that don't get algebra, not everyone is good at math
yes but math in general
I need Crash Course Calculus
Anyone taking the AP in 2019?
Noticed that too. If so, this channel is even more awesome. Not sure how Colbert would feel about being drawn by Canadians, but still.
Jeepers, John. . . That last bit was like a punch in the gut. So it goes all the way back to the civil war, eh? Dang.
I will say that Lincoln didn’t actually have the power to free those slaves in the Union. He was president not king. The constitution puts strict limits on his powers. The only way he could legally free any slaves is if they were a resource of an enemy during war times. Which is exactly what he did. To free slaves within union territory required a constitutional amendment.
Not to just say "this," but, well... this. The President can distribute resources held by a hostile force, not fundamentally change citizenship and property laws by decree.
wppb50 and his decree redistributed them into freedom. At least until the end of the war if slavery was not abolished by then when the courts would tear apart his decree, but they didn’t have to because with the 13th amendment it didn’t really do anything anymore.
02:27 Holy shit, is that Colbert? :D
Australia for the win
What?
Green did a really nice analysis at the end of this video.
Lets have a crash course on the Paraguay War!
OMG CONAN STRING DANCE
I think lady gaga would make north korea a better place... anyone really...
its weird how the non american parts of the world are green while in reality the real green parts of the world belong to america
What about the huge desert we have?
that is not what i mean
zomby GI hahaha i got what you meant
Thanks I have a quiz tomorrow this really helped
@crashcourse 6:50 The photographer is Alexander Gardener, the famous photographer of Abraham Lincoln and those who conspired against him