Robert E. May: Slavery was the Central, But Not the Only, Cause of the Civil War
[Robert E. May, Professor of History at Purdue University, is the author of "The Southern Dream of a Caribbean Empire, 1854-1861" and "Manifest Destiny's Underworld: Filibustering in Antebellum America."]
One hundred and fifty years ago, South Carolina seceded from the Union and put the nation on the path to its bloody civil war.
The NAACP and media commentators argue that plans by the Sons of Confederate Veterans and other groups to commemorate the Sesquicentennial of the origins of the Confederacy ignore slavery's role in the Civil War. Confederate celebrators rebut that the Rebs fought for noble causes like states rights and defending home and family against Northern invaders, and that the North hardly went to war to end slavery. Lincoln waited until mid-war to issue the Emancipation Proclamation.
Why can't neo-Confederates and their critics find common ground? The problem is that both sides simplify the past. Let me explain.
Lincoln hated slavery, but he and his Republican party insisted they had no intentions of using federal power to dismantle slavery in southern states. Republicans knew the Constitution had clauses protecting slaveholders' interests, although it avoided using the actual term "slavery." Lincoln, a lawyer, did not believe his party had the right to violate the Constitution, and knew the clauses had been included so Southern states would ratify the document in the first place. Neither Lincoln nor his party endorsed the abolitionist John Brown's raid on Harpers Ferry to free the slaves....
Read entire article at The Post and Courier
One hundred and fifty years ago, South Carolina seceded from the Union and put the nation on the path to its bloody civil war.
The NAACP and media commentators argue that plans by the Sons of Confederate Veterans and other groups to commemorate the Sesquicentennial of the origins of the Confederacy ignore slavery's role in the Civil War. Confederate celebrators rebut that the Rebs fought for noble causes like states rights and defending home and family against Northern invaders, and that the North hardly went to war to end slavery. Lincoln waited until mid-war to issue the Emancipation Proclamation.
Why can't neo-Confederates and their critics find common ground? The problem is that both sides simplify the past. Let me explain.
Lincoln hated slavery, but he and his Republican party insisted they had no intentions of using federal power to dismantle slavery in southern states. Republicans knew the Constitution had clauses protecting slaveholders' interests, although it avoided using the actual term "slavery." Lincoln, a lawyer, did not believe his party had the right to violate the Constitution, and knew the clauses had been included so Southern states would ratify the document in the first place. Neither Lincoln nor his party endorsed the abolitionist John Brown's raid on Harpers Ferry to free the slaves....