Janszoon

I've read differently but you may be right. The point, though, is that slavery was the major issue that caused the war. The fracture may not have been a perfectly clean line, but it's no coincidence that happened where it happened.

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midnight rain

I also think that it should be noted that Abraham Lincoln made it clear he wasn't out to abolish slavery when he was first elected, lending even more credence to the fact that the South was betraying our Union of States. It was only around 1863 I believe that he started to adopt the idea of abolishing it completely.

Abstract

This a very shady subject to this day, but I guess I will chime in. I am Southern for sure, from Alabama to be exact, and I definitely have a strong attachment to my home. The Civil War was a terrible event, but it happened. My opinion is this, I would have personally fought for the Confederates, but NOT because I support slavery or succession, but because the South is my home and I refuse to burn the houses of my neighbors and my own. Many people who fought for the CSA wanted to protect their homes, so the idea that ALL people who fought for the CSA believed in slavery is incorrect. The figures actually show that most Southerners were extremely poor and didn't own slaves, it was mostly the upper class plantation owners who did. But, I believe the outcome of the war was needed, the Union did need to win to bring the country back together, and to help answer the slavery issue that had been avoided for so many years.

Unknown Soldier

The victim as in they were the defenders of their territory. I don't mean victim as in their cause was just or anything.

midnight rain

Ah ok I see. That's not entirely the case though, while what you say is true, the only reason it was that way was becasue they were entirely unsuccessful in their attempts to take the North's territory. See Gettysburg, for example.

Unknown Soldier

I disagree. For the Union to win, what they had to do was invade southern territory and give the rebels a beating they couldn't recover from, they did this eventually but it took them 4 years to achieve it. For the Rebels to win, all they had to do was defend their territory and wear the Union down in their own territory, for this reason the majority of the battles were fought in Virginia and Tennessee, and the Mississippi river was seen as the key to war as well (rebel territory)

The Confederacy actually came so close to achieving victory and their aims on several occasions, they had consistently whipped the Union armies especially in the Eastern Theater (Virginia etc) on several occasions, but made the mistake of then invading northern territory (Pennsylvania) the Confederacy were great at fighting a defensive campaign, but not so good at fighting an offensive one which proved their undoing.

The million dollar question is, did the Union win the war or the Confederacy lose it?

hip hop bunny hop

Kansas was a free state; hence the term "border wars" for the games between Missouri University & Kansas University, as well as the KU mascot the "Jayhawk"...



All the light blue were states that had slavery but ended up going with the Union for one reason or another. This is also how we got West Virginia....

Anyways, my $0.02:

1) Slavery was the issue at hand in a round about way. The way I'd put it is when you've a housemate who never does the dishes, and then one day you come home and the entire place smells like catbox, and you flip your ****, and you include something along the lines of "....AND YOU NEVER DO THE GODDAMNED DISHES!"

2) LINK <---Marx actually has some interesting things to say on the Civil War, and - of course - this relates to Economics.

3) Wars should be fought only for concrete material concerns, and I'm very skeptical of the notion any war carried out for "humanitarian reasons" it claimed.

4) I don't understand why any one who'd like Whites to retain majority status in the USA would support the demographic catastrophe that was slavery.

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someonecompletelyrandom

You hit the nail right on the head. This is quoted for truth.

anticipation

When you consider the vast disparity between the perentage of slave-owning families in the south (royghly 5-10) and the percentage of non-slave owning, poor, and unskilled white laborers who fought in the Civil War it becomes quite evident that slavery was not that large of a factor in the beginnings of the war. I was always taught and tested on how the war specifically wasn't only about slavery but economic factors, cultural differences and a series of acts throughout the Midwest (Bleeding Kansas, Missouri Compromise, etc.) exacerbated the already tenuous relationship between the north and south.

Blarobbarg

To touch on a few of the topics in the thread...

The KKK was begun in Indiana. I have a coworker who lives very near the founding area, and he says there's all sorts of weird old KKK relics all over the place there.

In the urban areas of Louisville, my home, pretty much anybody with a Confederate flag pasted on their house or flying is a racist, and is letting everyone know it. Almost guaranteed. This is by far NOT how many, many southerners view it... I know, I've asked. Many southerners just view it as a symbol of independence. I disagree with using it in such a way because of its origins and how it makes African Americans (rightly) feel, but I digress. And yes, many of these same Confederate flag wavers DO love Lynyrnd Skynyrd.

I think more important than any of this is the fact that, thank God, the slaves were freed. That battle was won.

Unfortunately, there is literally more slaves today in the world than all of history. The sale of women is the third largest "business" in the world. So many think that after the Emancipation Proclamation there were no more slaves, ever, which is simply not true. Some of them are still here in the US.

If it isn't obvious already, this topic is VERY important to me. I cannot express in the English language how much I HATE slavery. The very idea of one man controlling another is simply sickening. I could literally go on for hours on this.

Instead, here's a link. This isn't who I primarily look at, but they have a ton of helpful info and slavery news. Take a look, please.

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