Is the American Civil War Finally Over After 150 Years?

Here is an interesting post by Ta-Nehisi Coates in an article in The Atlantic magazine:

Mississippi's governor offers his thoughts:

"Slavery was the primary, central, cause of secession," Barbour told me Friday. "The Civil War was necessary to bring about the abolition of slavery," he continued. "Abolishing slavery was morally imperative and necessary, and it's regrettable that it took the Civil War to do it. But it did."

Matt smirks at this. I'm less inclined to do so.

I think this is an important admission. You can make the case that this is all politics, and not heartfelt. Given that Barbour is a politician, I don't find that particularly damning. George Wallace's racism wasn't heart-felt either, but it still did incredible damage to Alabama. By that same principal, a step away from the gleeful profession of Confederate creationism, no matter the motives, will always earn my praise.

Good on Haley Barbour. It's that simple.

Go read the original article to get the embedded links.

I think the US is close to turning the page on the Civil War, but I suspect it will take one more generation to truly bury the racism and viciousness of that secular divide in the country. The fact that blacks are now moving back into the deep South after the flight of the early 20th century is a sign of real change. But it will take another generation to truly get the "peculiar institution" buried in the history books and no longer a living thing among the minds of the population.