Samuel W. Mitcham, Jr. has a remarkable ability to cut right to the chase when analyzing history. It no doubt comes from his extensive knowledge and perspective gained from a lifetime of writing (over 40 books) and reading about the events of the past which define us today.
The text of the inside front cover of Mitcham's It Wasn't About Slavery, Exposing the Great Lie of the Civil War starts with "If you think the Civil War was fought to end slavery, you've been duped."
More @ Charleston Athenaeum Press
The reason for the civil war.
ReplyDeleteSlavery
That is what I was taught.
But!
The Emancipation Proclamation came out well After the start of the war.
If you insulted my sister, you'd know WHY I hit you before I did it.
War does Not start without the opposing sides knowing what it is about.
It's nonsense to believe that a young man, working his assoff ,not a slave owner, going to war knowing the BEST that can come from it is to survive uninjured just to go back home and compete with the rich guys around who are out producing you using slavery.
Ya gotta think for yourself.
Ya gotta think for yourself.
DeleteYup.
They actually taught that it was state's rights when I was in school (late 60s in Texas). But it was a small town where a sizable percentage of the student were children of the workers at a plant that built atomic bombs.
ReplyDeleteThanks.
DeleteI was taught (Connecticut in the '50's and '60's) that it was a combination of state's rights, and slavery. In other words, each state's right to determine whether or not it wanted slavery. The Emancipation Proclamation apparently only freed slaves in the Confederacy, and it took a constitutional amendment (14th?) to end it for good. Personally, I think it came down to economics. The north had control of the south. All of the mills were up north.
ReplyDeleteI agree and there are about 10 different reasons for that matter..
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