Thread by @tomselliott

Some inconvenient #Juneteenth facts

1) The Emancipation Proclamation was designed to help Lincoln win the Civil War, not end slavery (it specifically "excepted" Union states & southern states then under Union control)

2) The Emancipation Proclamation, which came two years into the war, was designed to deter Britain from coming to the aid of the Confederacy, as they had been considering (the ploy worked)

3) "[The Emancipation Proclamation] was necessary to put the South at a moral disadvantage by transforming the contest from a war waged against states fighting for their independence, into a war against States fighting for the maintenance and extension of slavery, by making some… twitter.com/i/web/status/1…

4) Thanks to the Emancipation Proclamation excepting Union territory, Lincoln's family was spared. (His father-in-law owned slaves and his wife's share of her father's estate came from the proceeds of sold slaves.)

5) Lincoln was racist and thought blacks & whites could never co-exist. He told a group of free blacks who visited the White House: “Why should people of your race be colonized, and where? Why should they leave this country? You and we are different races. We have between us a… twitter.com/i/web/status/1…

6) Virtually every slave in the U.S. came from slave ship operators based in Northern states. For example, between 1755-1766, Massachusetts imported 23,000 African slaves. After importing slaves was made illegal in 1808, northern states continued importing approx. 40k/yr.

7) The South's leading men morally opposed slavery & believed "the influence of Christianity" would eventually cleanse the south of the institution (Robert E. Lee & Stonewall Jackson, George Washington, Thomas Jefferson, Patrick Henry, George Mason, Richard Henry Lee, James… twitter.com/i/web/status/1…

8) New Jersey, Delaware, and Kentucky voted down the 13th Amendment banning slavery, and continued selling slaves after its ratification. All three states were technically on the Union side during the Civil War. Only one southern state, Mississippi, voted down the 13th Amendment

9) Lincoln admitted the Civil War was not being fought over ending slavery: “If there be those who would not save the Union unless they could at the same time destroy slavery, I do not agree with them. My paramount object in this struggle is to save the Union, and is not either… twitter.com/i/web/status/1…

10) Slavery was still legal in Washington, D.C., following the Emancipation Proclamation & the federal government — under President Lincoln — continued enforcing the Fugitive Slave Act of 1850 during the Civil War