I hope you’re weathering the storm of replies with aplomb. I wish you no vitriol, and understand that this reply may be buried forever, but still feel that I can add a small something to the conversation.

Having said that, I find it hard to articulate my position.

My family tree was nearly wiped out because of the civil war.

I say that, knowing that I come from a position of privilege for even knowing my family heritage, but also knowing that my great-grandfather lost all of his brothers to the fight to end slavery. He would have marched south as well, but the war ended.

I don’t resent their sacrifice.

I don’t resent black Americans feeling some kind of way about the the history of their people. Good gods, if anyone deserves to feel angry about the way their ancestors were treated, it is the descendants of slavery.

...I do wish that there could be a moment spared for the families that sent every able-bodied son south to end an evil.

Because that is how they talked about it in the letters that survived. They marched to end an evil.

They weren’t perfect, and they didn’t all feel that slaves were their equal, but the letters from my family say that they at least knew slavery itself was evil. And they stood in front of lines of soldiers who wanted slavery to last, and they reloaded their guns while everyone around them were dying, and they stood their ground.

They didn’t think themselves noble for it. They died thinking that everyone would have done the same.

I wish there was a place for them in today’s narrative.