No, this is how you perceive it to have been, because you have an admitted bigotry toward the South. The people's attitudes at the time, were overwhelmingly racist, and overwhelmingly opposed to freedom and equality for blacks. This was the case in the North, South, East, West, and in between. It was pretty much a universal sentiment, as you indicated when you admitted that no politician would run on the 'abolition' issue, because it would have amounted to political suicide.
The "it's fucking legal" argument was the result of the United States Supreme Court rulings and actions of Congress up until (and in some cases after) the Civil War. It is patently unfair to hold people accountable for wrongdoing, when they were obeying the laws of the land at the time. Had the US adopted abolition, and the South balked and refused to accept it, and THEN the war was fought, you may have a valid point and argument, but the record is clear, that didn't happen.
Again, this is how you WISH it had been. The North's goal, according to Lincoln, was to preserve the Union, regardless of the issue of Slavery. As we can clearly see through the historical record of racial disharmony, in both the North and South after the Emancipation, people didn't "accept" a damn thing, and the majority of America was still devoutly racist, and very few people held a view that blacks were equal to whites.
I think you need to re-read what I posted. The North was anything BUT cordial toward black people. There was nothing "unavoidable" about the incidents I posted, it was brutal and deplorable racist violence, perpetrated on black people because they were black. Lynchings took place in the North, just as they did in the South, there was no "Northern view" as you described.
The North also didn't "overcome" anything, the racial disharmony continued through the 40's, 50's, 60's, 70's, 80's and into the 90's. Places like Detroit, Cleveland, Watts, Boston, Harlem... none of which are located in the South. Perhaps their problem is the same as yours, they don't think they are responsible for slavery or racism, and they appease any guilt for it by blaming it all on the South? I don't know the answer, I just know what has happened in history, and it doesn't appear the North is immune to racist sentiment toward black people any more than the South.
What we do, is celebrate our heritage. By your argument, we shouldn't put people like Lincoln, Madison, Jefferson, Jackson, and Washington, on American currency, we shouldn't celebrate their birthdays, or even the 4th of July, because this entire nation was founded (and in most cases, built) on the backs of slave labor. If people in the South held reenactments of slave auctions, or tied black men to trees and beat them to 'celebrate' their heritage, I would agree with you. What they celebrate is the defiant spirit of a region that stood up to what amounted to federal tyranny. You see, the reason you don't like the old flag or reenactments, is because you view the Civil War as being fought over the issue of human enslavement, and it wasn't. I can accept these reenactments as what they are, and the 'stars and bars' as an honorary symbol for those who fought and died under her... which incidentally, included a considerable number of black men.
What you choose to do is up to you, and what I choose to do is up to me. I could just as easily claim prejudice toward you for your lineage of slave condoning and racism among the groups you listed, but I am not bigoted like you. I understand that when people celebrate their heritage, they are not endorsing or supporting the insidious elements of the past, which are most likely the case with ANY lineage.
I heard there were a few black people moving into your neighborhood, looking to take your jobs... why don't you run along and shoot some of them?
