Not even a good romance, and I love trope-y romance.

In terms of historical memory it’s an interesting 90s blend of Lost Cause “slavery wasn’t the south’s cause and slavery wasn’t even that bad mostly” and framing the northern cause as almost exclusively about emancipation, neither of which is correct. Slaves for the most part are loyal (playing hard into the faithful slave/mammy Lost Cause narrative) except for vague mentions of the rare cruel master. ( )