Commentary
In that much under-appreciated Ang Lee film of 1998, “Ride With the Devil,” a melancholy Confederate irregular in the guerrilla conflict on the border between Missouri and “Bloody Kansas” during the Civil War explains why he thinks the South is bound to lose.
Citing the new schoolhouse in Lawrence, Kansas, built by Northern settlers even before the church, he says: “They rounded every pup up into that schoolhouse because they believe that everyone should have the same free-thinking ways they have. … That is why we shall lose. We don’t care what they think. We only care about ourselves.”
The point is that the Southerners only want to be left alone to go on doing what they’ve always done, whereas the aggressor Yankees (in their view) insist that everyone must think as they do about the evils of slavery. You can imagine the Confederates adapting the old pro-choice bumper-sticker to their own purposes: “If you’re opposed to slavery, then don’t own any slaves.”…