Was the Civil War over slavery or something else?
07-06-2010, 06:31 AM
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Was the Civil War over slavery or something else?
QUOTE
http://www.appletreeblog.com/?p=3868
Many Americans, especially Southerners, like to cling to the notion that the Civil War was fought over issues such as tariffs and states’ rights, rather than slavery. It’s easy to understand why. The Civil War is what defines the South. Some people in non-Confederate states like Oklahoma, Kentucky, Missouri, and West Virginia now try to claim Southern heritage, but generally speaking, a Southerner is a person from a state that tried to secede from the Union back in 1861. So it comes as no surprise that many Southerners say that slavery was not the main reason that the Confederate states left the Union.
But there are a couple of problems with this narrative. First of all, it’s not true. Second, separating the war from its cause allows the demagogues of the South to introduce racist symbols into official institutions. In the name of “heritage”, various flags of the Confederacy have been incorporated into the designs of state flags throughout the South, Confederate flags have been flown over state capitols, Robert E. Lee’s birthday is officially commemorated in Arkansas, Alabama, and Mississippi on the same day as Martin Luther King’s, and black children are forced to go to public schools named after Jefferson Davis (link link).
And all this is done in the name of heritage? Give me a break. The Confederacy lasted only four years. That’s not enough time to develop a heritage. At any rate, the only way that the demagogues can claim that the trappings of the Confederacy symbolize a vague sense of Southern heritage rather than White Supremacy is to pretend that the Civil War wasn’t fought over slavery. But there exists incontrovertible evidence that the Southern states tried to secede from the United States not because they objected to high taxes or because the Northern states didn’t respect some vague notion of “states’ rights”, but because they feared that the fugitive slave laws would soon be overturned, and that slavery would soon be abolished.
Many Americans, especially Southerners, like to cling to the notion that the Civil War was fought over issues such as tariffs and states’ rights, rather than slavery. It’s easy to understand why. The Civil War is what defines the South. Some people in non-Confederate states like Oklahoma, Kentucky, Missouri, and West Virginia now try to claim Southern heritage, but generally speaking, a Southerner is a person from a state that tried to secede from the Union back in 1861. So it comes as no surprise that many Southerners say that slavery was not the main reason that the Confederate states left the Union.
But there are a couple of problems with this narrative. First of all, it’s not true. Second, separating the war from its cause allows the demagogues of the South to introduce racist symbols into official institutions. In the name of “heritage”, various flags of the Confederacy have been incorporated into the designs of state flags throughout the South, Confederate flags have been flown over state capitols, Robert E. Lee’s birthday is officially commemorated in Arkansas, Alabama, and Mississippi on the same day as Martin Luther King’s, and black children are forced to go to public schools named after Jefferson Davis (link link).
And all this is done in the name of heritage? Give me a break. The Confederacy lasted only four years. That’s not enough time to develop a heritage. At any rate, the only way that the demagogues can claim that the trappings of the Confederacy symbolize a vague sense of Southern heritage rather than White Supremacy is to pretend that the Civil War wasn’t fought over slavery. But there exists incontrovertible evidence that the Southern states tried to secede from the United States not because they objected to high taxes or because the Northern states didn’t respect some vague notion of “states’ rights”, but because they feared that the fugitive slave laws would soon be overturned, and that slavery would soon be abolished.
I live in the South (GA) and I constantly hear alot of different opinions about this subject. Not sure what to think or believe. Whats everyone else think about it?
07-06-2010, 09:48 AM
#2
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The Civil War was caused by the Southern States trying to forcibly secede from the Union. The North didn't want to lose that large tax base and so went to war to force the Southern States to capitulate. The attempted secession was the direct cause. However, the outlawing of slavery was one of the issues that led to the attempted secession.
