The Map That Lincoln Used to See the Reach of Slavery

[theHandpuppet]

9. Fascinating. Thanks for posting this.

There are many reasons this map should be part of textbooks everywhere, especially because it illustrates quite clearly that despite neo-confederate efforts to revise history, the Civil War was driven by a plantation economy that could not be sustained without the evils of slavery -- and it was an economy they very much wanted to spread into the western territories.
You'll note that the light areas in the map are located along the Appalachians, where the plantation economy did not exist. Despite negative stereotyping of Appalachians, they were the most opposed to secession, regarding it as war of wealthy, slave-owning plantation owners, or "flatlanders". In fact, Appalachia was the home for Southern Unionists, where tens of thousands of men from Virginia to Alabama fought as Union troops.
So the next time someone waves the Stars and Bars and defends it as "Southern heritage", this map is a good reminder that the flag of traitors only represents one segment of Southerners and not the millions who were slaves, nor some 100,000 Southern men who fought under the banner of the Stars & Stripes.