That most un-civil war.....

Let me be very clear~our uncivil War between the States was not fought over Slavery! I don’t care what school you attended, or what kind of teacher you had…if you were taught that it was over slavery, you were taught a lie!

Although slavery, also known as property rights, was an issue, the act of secession was not about slavery!  It really was about States Rights!  And not the right to own slaves as some glib proponents of the slavery theory will attest.

Rather, it was the economy…or what political hacks are often wont to say, “It’s the economy, Stupid!”  

The southern economy was an agrarian one while the more populous northern states were basically manufacturing. The north had a ‘buy American’ agenda, therefore they wanted high tariffs on foreign goods making them more expensive than American products.  The south wanted low as possible tariffs so that foreign markets would buy more of King Cotton.   Problem was, the north had a larger and growing populace that, over time, would give them an advantage in Congress which southern leaders likened to taxation without representation, the stone upon which the rebellion of 1776 was founded.

So while it’s true that slavery was a major issue of the time, a political football, if you will, it was not the deciding factor that precipitated secession. Still, the system of government was working, citizens voting in individual States to classify their State as either ‘free’ or ‘slave’.  It was a fractious time and feelings ran high on both sides.

Factions came to blows in the Assemblies of many States.  Armed insurrectionists like John Brown fomenting revolution, abolitionists urging Slaves to flee their shackles for the safety of ‘Free States’, the famed underground railroad that funneled runaways to the north.  The fact is, the practice of slavery was ending. It had fallen into disrepute. England had abandoned the practice. Ministers of almost every church railed against it from their pulpits.  Not only was it unpopular, but it had become increasingly expensive to own slaves.  The large plantation owners, a relatively small group, were the primary business still using slave labor and finding it less profitable every year. There was a percentage of small farmers that owned slaves, usually less than a dozen, and that practice of maintaining mostly household labor was simply too expensive to continue. It was becoming economically more feasible throughout the south to hire immigrant labor that did not have to be fed and housed. Indeed, most of the public works throughout the southern states at that time employed Irish immigrants.

Still, as history books point out, slavery was in deed and fact an issue written into the Constitution of the Confederacy.  But, while it was just one issue, slavery was and is a very big deal for ‘black’ Americans.  And rightfully so.  They tend, therefore, to view the War in a very personal manner.  More so than most Americans.  Truth is, most Americans of today are descended from immigrants that came here after that war and simply don’t have a dog in the fight.

Of the three quarters of a million men who were killed in that conflict, almost half of them fought for the Confederacy.  And the majority of them by far, 95% or more, were not slave owners.  Nor were they fighting for the sheer joy of putting their lives and property on the line for a handful of slave owning rich men.  No, they fought and died for the same reason that their forebears had fought and died in our Revolutionary War. 

The flags they carried are of little importance except for the historical significance to their decedents and while critics are right to point out that they do not belong above the Capitol buildings that are supposed to represent every citizen, there is a place for them as there should be for all our historical icons, good, bad, or otherwise.

I’ve long been a proponent of teaching history, especially American history, warts and all.  America really has been a beacon of hope for the entire world and, as an American, its a position that I’d like to see continue. Teaching our students the flaws that accompanied our growth as a nation should not be a bad thing, rather a warning for future generations that history ignored is often history repeated.