In the 1880s and 1890s, the Civil War came to be recalled as a "tragic family quarrel among whites in which blacks had played no significant part." Who created this imagery of the Civil War and with what purpose?

This imagery of the Civil War as a "tragic family quarrel among whites in which blacks had played no significant part" was created by white Southern historians and writers, often referred to as the "Lost Cause" movement. Their purpose was to downplay the role of slavery in causing the Civil War and to portray the Confederacy as a noble and just cause. By minimizing the significance of African Americans in the conflict, they sought to maintain white supremacy and justify the continued disenfranchisement and segregation of black Americans in the post-war South. This narrative also aimed to reconcile the North and South by emphasizing a shared white heritage and minimizing the deep-rooted racial divisions that had fueled the war.