Slavery was already on the way out. Most southerners were poor and didn't even own slaves. It's good that our first Republican pres abolished it, but he would have relinquished on that point to avoid the war and famously said so. A bloated federal government with too much power and over a million dead Americans( edit: 620,000 dead) is the legacy that we inherit from the civil war, a tragedy all around. To equate the Confederate flag as representative of a bunch of racist hillbillys would be intentionally ignorant, but sadly that's what a lot of folks see it as.
A number of black freemen fought for the confederacy as well. It definitely isn’t (no pun intended) as black and white as history has made it out to be.
Yep, farming was already becoming mechanized with the cotton gin and the reaper. Slavery is evil, but technology would have probably made plantation slaves uneconomical within a decade, and the opposition to abolition (which was largely economical, coming from southern agriculture) would have vanished. England abolished slavery without a bloody war.
Also, secession was not treason. Secession was part of American culture, and the concept was laid out clearly in our own Declaration of Independence. There were many secession movements prior to the Civil War, some were abolitionist, but none ever got enough votes for states to leave the union. The writings from the time clearly show that secession was considered legal, and a viable option, as government by and for the people was our core value, one that we have lost.
I'm convinced the Civil War was more about keeping and consolidating the Federal government's power over the states.
Slavery was already on the way out. Most southerners were poor and didn't even own slaves. It's good that our first Republican pres abolished it, but he would have relinquished on that point to avoid the war and famously said so. A bloated federal government with too much power and over a million dead Americans( edit: 620,000 dead) is the legacy that we inherit from the civil war, a tragedy all around. To equate the Confederate flag as representative of a bunch of racist hillbillys would be intentionally ignorant, but sadly that's what a lot of folks see it as.
A number of black freemen fought for the confederacy as well. It definitely isn’t (no pun intended) as black and white as history has made it out to be.
Always fills me with joy when I realize I'm not alone trying to speak facts about the civil war.
Just to add to what you said, the Confederates PAID their black regimens EQUAL to the white regimens. The Union didn't even pay theirs.
Slaves would have been freed with or without the civil war happening.
Yep, farming was already becoming mechanized with the cotton gin and the reaper. Slavery is evil, but technology would have probably made plantation slaves uneconomical within a decade, and the opposition to abolition (which was largely economical, coming from southern agriculture) would have vanished. England abolished slavery without a bloody war.
Also, secession was not treason. Secession was part of American culture, and the concept was laid out clearly in our own Declaration of Independence. There were many secession movements prior to the Civil War, some were abolitionist, but none ever got enough votes for states to leave the union. The writings from the time clearly show that secession was considered legal, and a viable option, as government by and for the people was our core value, one that we have lost.
I'm convinced the Civil War was more about keeping and consolidating the Federal government's power over the states.