Again, the Civil War was not about slavery.
This unfortunate war was engineered, like so many wars, by the banksters…
There may be some truth to that. However, slavery was institutionalized in the southern states and their constitution codified slaves as property. This was certainly defended in their war effort.
The citizens of each State shall be entitled to all the privileges and immunities of citizens in the several States; and shall have the right of transit and sojourn in any State of this Confederacy, with their slaves and other property; and the right of property in said slaves shall not be thereby impaired. [
Just goes to show some here are content on pretending to know our constitution. So be it!
“My new circumstances compelled me to re-think the whole subject … By such a course of thought and reading I was conducted to the conclusion that the Constitution of the United States … could not well have been designed at the same time to maintain and perpetuate a system of rapine and murder like slavery, especially as not one word can be found in the Constitution to authorize such a belief.”
Martin Luther King essentially exhorted America to be more American by truly living up to its creed that “all men are created equal.”
Let’s not forget that the plight and success of Frederick Douglas was founded in the living rooms of many white people who also hated slavery. In fact, most Americans hated slavery so much that a republican president and republican congress overcame the democrats and southerners who were pro slavery. It was republicans who gave blacks the vote as well. Get it right if you are going to complain liberals and foreigners!
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Yes, slaves were property. We all know that.
But that still is not a cause for a war.
I know States rights, southern pride, preservation of taxes and tariffs, etc., etc…
Declaring a Confederacy
So, as this preemptive secession commenced, Southern state governments issued declarations of secession that placed the preservation of slavery front and center. Mississippi’s is perhaps the most infamous—though also among the most pragmatic. It generally concerns the preservation of the South’s slave-dependent export-economy. “Our position is thoroughly identified with the institution of slavery—the greatest material interest of the world,” it reads. “Its labor supplies the product which constitutes by far the largest and most important portions of commerce of the earth.”
I used to make the same claim about state’s rights until I read some of the constitutions of the states that seceded from the union. (available online)
Many of the Democrat slave owners didn’t even live in the South. Providence R.I. was a popular haven for the wealthiest plantation owners, especially those from the Caribbean sugar plantations.
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As a Southerner, who’s family has lived in the middle of the state of Georgia near the border of Alabama for generations we were always taught that the “Civil War” was the War of Northern Aggression. That view runs deep in the south and the truthfulness of it isn’t doubted by anyone.
But then again th causes of the civil war was beyond the standard issue of slavery.
Economic interests, cultural values, the power of the federal government to control the states were among the issues of the time.
One of the issues: Tariff of Abominations
This inflammatory piece of legislation, passed with the aid of Northern politicians, imposed a tax or duty on imported goods that caused practically everything purchased in the South to rise nearly half-again in price.
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Slavery equals economic interests.
I agree and I am not a Southerner but my sympathies lay with the South due to some very inaccurate historical accounts! By that I mean, the victors get the spoils of war as well as getting to write history the way they see fit. During the civil war both Karl Marx and Charles Dickens we’re both alive and had very strong opinions about what started the war and what it was about and both stated that it was about empire and conquest! Slavery didn’t become central until Lincoln needed a cause to Champion in order to be re-elected. Morale was Low at the time and it didn’t look good for Lincoln so Slavery didn’t become The Central issue until he signed the emancipation proclamation act until the 3rd year into the war. The causes of the war is probably the most contentious issue to date as many believed it was over slavery and others say it was over commerce. Reviewing certain known facts points to the latter. Tariffs was certainly central to what started the war.
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Reading this book one can understand the document we inherited and why it is written as it is;
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At one point the south was paying up to 80% in tariffs! Also the South was underrepresented in the house as all Northern states had the votes when it came to voting on the tariffs.
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Which is why the Southern states wanted slaves counted as whole persons and the North agreed as long as the slaves were freed. They settled on the 3/5 Compromise.
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Coming from the Northeast I can tell you that we were indoctrinated in school to believe that the war was all about slavery and that the North was magnanimous in trying to free the slaves. As I grew older and read books on the Civil War, and visited countless battlefields all throughout the southern US, I have arrived at a very different conclusion. It’s not what we were taught in school. That’s an oversimplification and misrepresentation of the facts. There were Southerners in the US Army at the time who did not own any slaves and who didn’t support slavery, those soldiers didn’t stay with the North. They fought with the South because it appeared to them that the federal government was overreaching and oppressing the free southern states. I agree with their assessment. The south were the very first Americans to fight against domestic tyrannical government.
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Everybody wants to believe that their fight was a just fight.
Yes, you pretty much nail it down in what I was taught too, until reading more on the subject matter such as authors like Thomas DeLorenzo, and Shelby Foote opened my eyes to the more caustic details that revealed plausible motives and impetus that led up to the war.
When Obama was first elected he was asked who his favourite president was and he stated it was Lincoln. Now to a layman glossing over that statement they would simply think it’s because he is viewed by Blacks as the great emancipator, but there is another aspect to Lincoln that is also revealing about why Obama likes him. Lincoln was a lawyer too and represented the railroads before becoming president. The motives behind raising the tariffs was so Lincoln could have his biggest benefactor which was the railroad lobby! In fact Lincoln invented the term “corporate welfare” and the quid pro quo to which the tax payers at the time were funding the expansion of the railroads. Mind you, there was no income tax and tariffs was the only government source of funding at the time so it’s easy to see why they wanted to keep increasing them in order to please his donors! Funny how some things stay the same when speaking of government today in comparison! But yes you are right, the south were indeed the first to fight against a tyrannical government and that sentiment still holds true today in many states in the south, especially South Carolina.
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Well sort of.
A lie. The American Indian Tribes were not American citizens.
I didn’t call them American citizens. And you’re splitting hairs anyway. They were certainly Americans, and fighting European tyranny.