The bank held the town government responsible for paying the debt and it took them literal decades to pay it off from tax revenue They put the marker up in like the 1930s after they made the last payment (in the middle of the fucking Depression)
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That marker taught me more about the Civil War than all the statues of generals and soldiers and shit I've seen before or since Fuck the Confederates And also fuck the banks
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Replying to @arthur_affect
Fuck the gentle peace. The bank SHOULD have been made whole, by seizing the wealth of rich non-slaveowners in the south. (Obvs, rich slaveowners’ wealth should have been liquidated and given to freedmen)
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Replying to @lawnerdbarak
Yeah the thing is the much more famous portrayal of soldiers looting and robbing and burning was the Union doing it to the South, a la Gone with the Wind But the Union really was just responding to the Confederates having started it
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Replying to @arthur_affect @lawnerdbarak
Also, robbing a slaveowner is just robbing a robber This was a whole thing, the Union Army taking in escaped slaves as "contraband" (archly describing them as property lawfully seized in the heat of battle)
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Replying to @arthur_affect
Using a slave to aid a rebellion was conceived of as analogous to using a ship to conduct piracy: the ship was simply forfeit. Even if the owner was innocent and the ship was stolen! (This is the origin of asset forfeiture)
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Replying to @lawnerdbarak
Yeah unlike the rough and ready "self-funding" nature of the Confederates' partisans the Union tried to keep things relatively aboveboard They couldn't just take stuff from slaveowners, it had to be auctioned off and the proceeds went to the Treasury
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Replying to @arthur_affect @lawnerdbarak
Fun fact, overseeing these auctions and the lawful distribution of funds from contraband could only be done by an officer who held the rank of colonel or higher It is because of this that it is traditional to address the conductor of an auction by the courtesy title "Colonel"
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Replying to @arthur_affect @lawnerdbarak
I do greatly enjoy these little traditional ways to steal valor, like how anyone who just has a boat can be a "Captain"
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Replying to @arthur_affect @lawnerdbarak
I've always loved the weird vestigial bits of maritime law, myself, like the fact that one valid officiant for a marriage is a ship's captain. Theoretically, ANY ship's captain will do, so if you and your bride-to-be go hang out on your friend's sailboat, welp.
1 reply 0 retweets 1 like
For obvious reasons - if you're stuck on a ship with no other valid authority figure around
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Replying to @arthur_affect @lawnerdbarak
Oh, yeah, it's definitely for valid reasons, or the vestiges of valid reasons, but i always think it's both cool and funny.
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