• Seleni@lemmy.world
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    11 months ago

    It was about the southern states wanting to own slaves. They said so themselves in their secession letters.

    The northern states, not being complete monsters or wanting to treat fellow human beings like property, refused to let anyone join their side who wanted slaves.

      • ripcord@kbin.social
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        11 months ago

        Yes, and laws had been passed in (nearly) all that either slavery was outlawed or no NEW slaves could be imported. Slavery was being gradually eliminated and that’s what the rebel states were upset about. And the potential economic impact.

        In March 1861, Alexander Stephens, vice president of the Confederate States of America, gave his view on the issue:

        The new [Confederate] constitution has put at rest, forever, all the agitating questions relating to our peculiar institution — African slavery as it exists amongst us — the proper status of the negro in our form of civilization. This was the immediate cause of the late rupture and present revolution . . . The prevailing ideas entertained by . . . most of the leading statesmen at the time of the formation of the old constitution, were that the enslavement of the African was violation of the laws of nature; that it was wrong in principle, socially, morally, and politically. . . Those ideas, however, were fundamentally wrong. They rested upon the assumption of . . . the equality of races. This was an error . . .

        Our new government is founded upon exactly the opposite idea; its foundations are laid, its corner–stone rests upon the great truth, that the negro is not equal to the white man; that slavery — subordination to the superior race — is his natural and normal condition.

        It’s not accurate to say it was “only” about slavery, but it’s the best one-point answer you could give, and the biggest issue.

        The issue is that there has been a giant movement to minimize the “we really wanted slavery” part are reframe it was a “state’s rights” thing which is highly inaccurate way to frame things and stupid.

        • ILikeBoobies@lemmy.ca
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          11 months ago

          Slavery was being gradually eliminated and that’s what the rebel states were upset about.

          I talked about this in another comment

          But thank you for having an actual comment

        • ILikeBoobies@lemmy.ca
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          11 months ago

          The northern states, not being complete monsters or wanting to treat fellow human beings like property, refused to let anyone join their side who wanted slaves.

          So obviously they are wrong because the Union already existed with the confederate states in it but let’s give this person the benefit of the doubt and say they meant after some of the slave states left (hard when they are dumb enough to think it was over slavery) as you can see from the image. You have grey states for Union states with slavery at the same time as the confederacy existed. Even if you want to ignore my explanation for why the Confederacy left the Union (not kicked out, not unable to join because the Union was moral) they are straight up lying by saying there wasn’t slavery in the Union

          Again the only people that say it was about slavery are racists who want slavery to return . Everyone else is smarter than that