[shadowgovt]

I don't think parent poster is arguing that point. I think parent poster's point is that all of those things happened and the alternative, had the South been brutally subjugated, decimated, or humiliated, would have been objectively worse.

[fzeroracer]

I think it's a really silly point to be made because they would have to either ignore or downplay how absolutely criminal the conditions were for the freedmen. I cannot imagine a situation much worse.