Slavery and the American Civil War

The American Civil War was the bloodiest conflict this nation has ever been involved in. Yet many people still don’t know why it was fought. Many are still under the misperception that it was fought over slavery. Talk about rewriting history. A short chronological timeline tells the truth.

Southern states began to secede from the United States in January 1861 after Lincoln’s election, but before he had been inaugurated. The southern states asked that the United States surrender the forts in the southern states, but President Buchanan refused. In response the southern troops seized them. The most famous of these was Fort Sumter, which was only under siege. Lincoln was inaugurated in March 1861.

On April 12, 1861 the southern troops fired on Fort Sumter to compel the fort commander’s surrender. This began the American Civil War. It’s interesting to note that 4 slave states remained in the Union. West Virginia was created out of the western counties of Virginia when Virginia seceded.

Abraham Lincoln’s Emancipation Proclamation wasn’t issued until January 1, 1863. This was 2 years AFTER the events at Fort Sumter. Even Abraham Lincoln’s much credited Emancipation Proclamation didn’t end slavery. He told his cabinet about it in July 1862, but he needed a victory on the battlefield to launch his plan. That victory came in September 1862 at Antietam. After the victory he announced that the Emancipation Proclamation would go into effect on January 1, 1863 and would apply to all slaves in Confederate territory UNLESS the southern states surrender. Southern lands already in the hands of the Union were exempt. Lincoln’s threat of ending slavery in the south was aimed at bringing a quick end to the war and not at freeing the slaves. Instead, the war dragged on for another 3 years.

In the summer of 1863 Congress instituted a draft in the Union. This caused riots in the streets. The most well known was in New York City where blacks were attacked and lynched in the streets. Apparently, the idea of being forced to fight to free slaves wasn’t very popular even in the northern states.

So, if the attack on Fort Sumter was credited with starting the American Civil War then how could the war have been caused by slavery? Abraham Lincoln was opposed to slavery, but he had also said during his campaign that he wasn’t going to abolish it.

That war was fought over state’s rights. The leadership in the southern states didn’t like the way they were being treated and several voted to leave the United States. The Federal government was counting slaves to determine taxes, but was ignoring them when it came to figuring out the number of representatives in Congress. The southern states formed their own central government called the Confederate States and they were determined to rule themselves. When they seceded they asked the Union troops to leave the forts, but they refused. This was the equivalent of a foreign army on their land. The people of those states and their state government’s didn’t consider themselves part of the United States anymore and they didn’t want the United States troops in their states. The Federal government ignored their wishes and chose to stay put. It was the desire of the southern states to exercise their independence from the United States that caused them to attack those forts.

The issue of slavery came along after the war had begun and after Lincoln had become President. It was a byproduct of the war, but certainly not the cause of it. The most ironic thing of all is that of those 4 slave states that remained in the Union the Emancipation Proclamation applied to none of them because they hadn’t seceded from the Union.

Congress passed the proposed 13th Amendment in January 1865. When Lincoln was assassinated in April 1865 the future amendment still hadn’t been ratified by enough states to become part of the U.S. Constitution. That didn’t happen until December 1865.

The American Civil War was fought over state’s rights and the side fighting for those rights lost the war. It’s a total rewrite of history to claim that the American Civil War was fought over slavery or that Abraham Lincoln ended slavery. Lincoln wasn’t even alive when slavery ended!
It must be pretty tough to explain to kids that the President of the United States decided that certain people couldn't be in control of their own destinies and rule themselves. It must be even tougher to explain that Lincoln only issued his Emancipation Proclamation as a threat to compel the southern states to surrender. That’s why children are taught that the American Civil War was fought over slavery instead of independence.