Sandia
Very Experienced
- Joined
- May 24, 2002
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And the topic is:
The (American) Civil War
Why the war was not really over slavery (by Sandia)
The schoolbook history of the Civil War is that it was fought over slavery. It makes Americans feel warm and fuzzy. And Northerners especially feel good about this version of history.
It's mainly wrong. Here's why:
The war aims of the North never included emancipation.
Abraham Lincoln: My paramount object in this struggle is to save the Union, and is not either to save or destroy slavery. If I could save the Union without freeing any slaves, I would do it; and if I could save it by freeing all the slaves, I would do it; and if I could do it by freeing some and leaving others alone, I would also do that."
~Letter from the President, NY Tribune, August, 1962.
From his inaugural address: "I have no purpose, directly or indirectly, to interfere with the institution of slavery in the states where it exists. I believe I have no lawful right to do so, and I have no inclination to do so."
The Emancipation Proclamation was a war measure, with two purposes. 1. To encourage border states to stay in the Union; and 2. To (hopefully) deprive the South of slave-manpower.
What the E. P. actually said was not (as many people seem to think) that the slaves were free, but that those slaves in parts of the US that were in rebellion against the government, and not under control of US authority were freed. Slaves in Delaware, Maryland, Kentucky, and Missouri (slave states that remained loyal to the Union) were not freed. Slaves in Tennessee and those parts of Virginia and Louisiana under Federal occupation were also excluded.
To put it differently, the E. P. freed all the slaves the US government had no power to free, and kept slavery everywhere it had the power to end it.
Furthermore, the preliminary E. P. was an explicit proposition to the rebel states, since it promised not to emancipate slaves in any state that rejoined the Union before the actual proclamation went into effect.
No Southern state took Lincoln up on this offer.
Now, there's no doubt that hostility over slavery led up to the secession. But once it began, that is not what the North and South fought over.
The South fought for independence. The North was fighting for preservation of the Union.
This is how the soldiers of the time understood the conflict, and it's how their leaders defined it.
The idea that the Civil War was a war over slavery is a modern invention.
Thoughts please.
The (American) Civil War
Why the war was not really over slavery (by Sandia)
The schoolbook history of the Civil War is that it was fought over slavery. It makes Americans feel warm and fuzzy. And Northerners especially feel good about this version of history.
It's mainly wrong. Here's why:
The war aims of the North never included emancipation.
Abraham Lincoln: My paramount object in this struggle is to save the Union, and is not either to save or destroy slavery. If I could save the Union without freeing any slaves, I would do it; and if I could save it by freeing all the slaves, I would do it; and if I could do it by freeing some and leaving others alone, I would also do that."
~Letter from the President, NY Tribune, August, 1962.
From his inaugural address: "I have no purpose, directly or indirectly, to interfere with the institution of slavery in the states where it exists. I believe I have no lawful right to do so, and I have no inclination to do so."
The Emancipation Proclamation was a war measure, with two purposes. 1. To encourage border states to stay in the Union; and 2. To (hopefully) deprive the South of slave-manpower.
What the E. P. actually said was not (as many people seem to think) that the slaves were free, but that those slaves in parts of the US that were in rebellion against the government, and not under control of US authority were freed. Slaves in Delaware, Maryland, Kentucky, and Missouri (slave states that remained loyal to the Union) were not freed. Slaves in Tennessee and those parts of Virginia and Louisiana under Federal occupation were also excluded.
To put it differently, the E. P. freed all the slaves the US government had no power to free, and kept slavery everywhere it had the power to end it.
Furthermore, the preliminary E. P. was an explicit proposition to the rebel states, since it promised not to emancipate slaves in any state that rejoined the Union before the actual proclamation went into effect.
No Southern state took Lincoln up on this offer.
Now, there's no doubt that hostility over slavery led up to the secession. But once it began, that is not what the North and South fought over.
The South fought for independence. The North was fighting for preservation of the Union.
This is how the soldiers of the time understood the conflict, and it's how their leaders defined it.
The idea that the Civil War was a war over slavery is a modern invention.
Thoughts please.
