Читать книгу American Civil War For Dummies - Keith D. Dickson - Страница 46

As both the North and South became increasingly hostile to each other, both regions rhetorically wrapped themselves in the mantle of purity and righteousness. It needs to be made clear that neither section was free of the fear and hostility to Blacks, whether free or slave. In the South, the slave system, however beneficent and humane, depended in the end on the threat of violence to compel obedience and compliance. In this way, it was a tyrannical system and a damning charge against the institution. The North, which was more than 98% white in 1860, was hostile to Blacks. Laws restricted civil liberties, such as voting; schools and many churches, theaters, restaurants, rail cars, and hotels were strictly segregated. Blacks could not testify against whites in court, and some Midwest states banned Blacks from entering their states altogether. Blacks in the cities of the North lived in bleak conditions. Jobs were scarce, as whites preferred to hire Irish immigrants. Violence directed against Blacks was commonplace, and sympathetic support was rare. Thus, the larger problem in America was not slavery, per se, but the fact that Blacks and whites were coexisting in two vastly different and separate worlds.