Confederacy Fought the Civil War to Preserve Slavery, Confederate Leaders Proclaimed

In some videos, particularly our Civil Rights short videos,
we sometimes get comments that “everyone knows” that
the Civil War was not fought over slavery.
Unfortunately, someone did not inform the leaders of the
Confederacy that they did not secede because of slavery,
because the fear that slavery would be abolished was
exactly the reason the Confederate leaders gave for
seceding from the Union.

Please, we welcome interesting questions in the
comments. Let us learn and reflect together!
At the end of our talk, we will discuss the sources
used for this video. Feel free to follow along in the
PowerPoint script we uploaded to SlideShare.

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After the seven core states of the Confederacy
seceded, and three weeks after the inauguration of
Abraham Lincoln as President, Alexander Stephens,
Vice President of the Confederacy, delivered the
Cornerstone Speech in Savannah, Georgia. He
proudly announced that white supremacy and black
slavery was the cornerstone of Southern society,
claiming that white supremacy and slavery was based
on divine law.

Confederate VP, Civil War was about Slavery

(REPEAT) Stephens continues, “Our confederacy is founded upon
principles in strict conformity with these laws” establishing
slavery. “This stone which was rejected by the first builders 'is
become the chief of the corner,' the real 'corner-stone,' in our
new edifice.” This is religious imagery, as Christ was proclaimed
as the corner-stone of Christianity.
Furthermore, the Confederate VP Stephens proclaimed that the
new Confederate “Constitution has put at rest forever all the
agitating questions relating to our peculiar institution, African
slavery as it exists among us, and the proper status of the negro
in our form of civilization.”

The Confederate VP Stephens proclaimed:
“Our new government's foundations are
laid, its cornerstone 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. This, our new
government, is the first, in the history of
the world, based upon this great physical,
philosophical, and moral truth.”
Portrait of Alexander Stephens (1812-1883)

Stephens continues, “Our confederacy is
founded upon principles in strict conformity
with these laws” establishing slavery. “This
stone which was rejected by the first builders
'is become the chief of the corner,' the real
'corner-stone,' in our new edifice.”
Furthermore, the Confederate VP Stephens
proclaimed that the new Confederate
“Constitution has put at rest forever all the
agitating questions relating to our peculiar
institution, African slavery as it exists among
us, and the proper status of the negro in our
form of civilization.”

Confederate States Secede Over Slavery
Bombardment of Fort Sumter, Currier & Ives, 1861

SECESSION CONVENTIONS
What did the states give as their reasons to secede in
their secession conventions?

South Carolina, the first state to
secede, and the first state militia to
fire on Union troops at Fort Sumter,
starting the Civil War, stated in its
declaration of secession the
“increasing hostility on the part of
the non-slaveholding States to the
Institution of Slavery". "A
geographical line has been drawn
across the Union, and all the States
north of that line have united in
the election of a man to the high
office of President of the United
States, whose opinions and
purposes are hostile to slavery.”
Major Anderson Raising the Flag on the Morning of His Taking
Possession of Fort Sumter, 1860, by Edwin White, 1862

Mississippi proclaimed that its reason
for seceding was to preserve “the
institution of slavery, the greatest
material interest of the world.”
Florida proclaimed that the reasons
for its seceding were all related to
slavery: “the North's disregard for the
1850 Fugitive Slave Act; John Brown’s
1859 failed slave uprising; and
William Lloyd Garrison’s The Liberator
and Frederick Douglass’ The North
Star tried to ‘excite insurrection and
servile war,’” and lastly listed Lincoln’s
election as another reason.
The Battle of Olustee, North Florida, was the only major
Civil War battle fought in Florida, 1864

The Fugitive Slave Act was part of the Compromise of
1850 to hold the Union together, it stated that
Northern officials were obligated to return runaway
slaves to their masters and was deeply unpopular in
the North. In return, several states were admitted to
the Union as free states.

Underground
Railroad, by
Charles T
Webber, 1893

John Brown was a fanatical anti-slavery terrorist who
captured the federal arsenal at Harper’s Ferry in
Virginia, hoping to spark a slave uprising, except that
the surrounding slaves had no knowledge of his
plans. Robert E Lee was the US general who put
down the insurrection, and John Brown was able to
deliver a prophetic oration at his trial, capturing the
imagination of many in the North.

Tragic Prelude,
John Brown, by
John Stuart Curry,
painted 1938

Frederick Douglass, a former runaway slave and
spell-binding orator whose English friends were able
to purchase his manumission, wrote a best-selling
autobiography on the brutalities he experienced and
witnessed in his life as a slave.

Likewise, Alabama seceded from the
Union mainly to perpetuate slavery.
Georgia likewise seceded from the
Union to preserve slavery, its governor
asked, “What will be the result to the
institution of slavery, which will follow
submission to the inauguration and
administration of Mr. Lincoln as the
President? It will be the total abolition
of slavery.”

Likewise, Louisiana seceded from the
Union mainly to perpetuate slavery. Texas
also explicitly stated that slavery was the
cause for secession: “We hold as
undeniable truths that the governments
of the various States, and of the
confederacy itself, were established
exclusively by the white race, for
themselves and their posterity; that the
African race had no agency in their
establishment; that they were rightfully
held and regarded as an inferior and
dependent race, and in that condition
only could their existence in this country
be rendered beneficial or tolerable.”
New Orleans Captured, Currier and Ives, April 1862

Slavery was the main reason for secession for the
other states seceding from the Union.

Dred Scott Supreme Court Decision

Not only had the Confederate states dominated Congress and the Presidency in the
decades prior to the Civil War, they also dominated the Supreme Court. A major
cause of the Civil War was the Supreme Court decision in Dred Scott vs Sanford in
1857. Dred Scott was a slave who sued his master for his freedom as his master
moved him and his family between slave states and free states that banned slavery
under the Missouri Compromise law.
(REPEAT) The Southern Chief Justice Roger Taney held that no negro had ever
enjoyed the rights of a citizen under the Constitution. Negroes were denied the
dignity of personhood, negroes were always property and would also remain
property, negroes were declared by the Supreme Court decision to be “so far
inferior that they had no rights which a white man was bound to respect.” This
decision applied to freed blacks as well as slaves. This decision, which denied that
the Constitution gave Congress the right to bar slavery in the territories, enraged
public opinion in the North, bolstering the popularity of Lincoln and the Republican
Party.

Negroes were denied
the dignity of
personhood, negroes
were always property
and would also remain
property, negroes were
declared by the
Supreme Court decision
to be “so far inferior
that they had no rights
which a white man was
bound to respect.”

Harriet Beecher Stowe: Uncle Tom’s Cabin
Eliza tells Uncle Tom that he has been sold and she is running away to save her child, by
Hammatt Billings, illustration in first edition, 1852

When Abraham Lincoln met Harriet Beecher Stowe, he remarked, So you
are the little lady whose little book started the Civil War. This book, Uncle
Tom’s Cabin, was the best-selling book by far in 1852, eventually selling
over a million copies, galvanizing Northern opinion about the horrors of
slavery. This romantic novel from the point of view of ordinary slaves, and
it really promoted that the lives of even slaves should have dignity, they
were not just mere property like cows or horses, that slaves could the
heroes and heroines of a tragic novel allowing the reader to imagine the
horrors of a life lived bound in chains, of souls bound in cruel inequities,
of human beings bound in a life of unending peonage.

State’s Rights and Preserving the Union
The surrender at Appomattox, by Louis Guillaume, 1892

To say that upholding state’s rights was the true cause of the Civil War is ignoring
the truth that the Confederate States saw it as the right of the individual states to
uphold the institution of slavery, so state’s rights and slavery are really the same
issue.
Wondrium had sponsored an online discussion featuring Professor Gary Gallagher
and his Civil War lectures, and I was able to ask the good professor two questions.
My first question was whether many Northerners suspected that if the North sued
for peace rather than calling up troops after South Carolina shelled Fort Sumter, that
this would only delay the inevitable Civil War. The reason war would be inevitable is
that the two nations would eventually come to blows over whether newly settled
states in the western territories would be admitted to the Confederacy as slave
states or be admitted as free labor states in the Union. Professor Gallagher
answered that indeed, this was the fear of many informed citizens before the Civil
War.

Major Anderson
Raising the Flag
on the Morning
of His Taking
Possession of
Fort Sumter,
1860, by Edwin
White, painted
1862

My second question was, Why Were Northern Soldiers Eager to Fight to
Preserve the Union? Which seems to be a rather abstract cause to give
the ultimate sacrifice of your life.
Professor Gallagher said that he wrote a book exploring that very
question, which we reviewed in a prior video. Northerners were deeply
committed to preserving the Union cause, this dominated the politics of
American icons such as Daniel Webster and Henry Clay in the many
decades preceding the Civil War. Northerners were resentful that the
Confederate states seceded after Abraham Lincoln won the Presidency,
this resentment was deepened by the fact that the Southern states had
dominated the government since the founding of the Republic. But to
truly understand the depth of these feelings, we need to reflect on the
biographies of Daniel Webster and Henry Clay, which we plan to do.

There is no denying that the abolition movement in the North
was never enthusiastically supported by the majority of whites in
the North, most Northern whites were deeply prejudiced against
blacks, and segregation of the races was nearly universally
accepted. But many Northerners supported the Free-Soil Party,
active from 1848 to 1854, which opposed slavery not on moral
grounds, but on economic grounds, since slaves were seen as
unfair competition to free white laborers and workers. When the
Free-Soil Party dissolved, most of its former members joined the
newly formed Republican Party.

.”
Emancipation Proclamation, AA Lamb, painted 1864
Lincoln’s Emancipation Proclamation

To win the war, Lincoln drafted the Emancipation
Proclamation, shared it with his Cabinet, and then
pocketed the document until the fortunes of war
improved for the North. After the victory at the
Battle of Antietam and Grant’s victory at Vicksburg,
Lincoln released the Emancipation Proclamation as
an executive order issued under his war powers as
Commander-In-Chief in September 1862.

Battle of Antietam,
the charge of Iron
Brigade near the
Dunker Church,
1862, by Thure de
Thulstrup, painted
1887
Casualties:
Union 12,000
Confederate 10,000

1st Battalion, 13th
Infantry, lost forty-three
percent of its men, but of
the attacking force, it
alone fought its color up
the steep slope to the top.
General Sherman called its
performance "unequalled
in the Army" and
authorized the 13th
Infantry to inscribe "First
at Vicksburg" on its color.

Lincoln proclaimed that if the Confederacy
surrendered by January 1, 1863, she could keep her
slaves, but if the rebellion persisted after that date all
slaves in the rebelling states would be free. This
guaranteed that England would not intervene in
favor of the Confederacy, since the British were
deeply committed to abolishing slavery.

This Harper’s Weekly illustration shows what the free
blacks saw in Emancipation, no longer would they be
whipped, no longer would they be abused, they
could now vote, they and their children could attend
school, learn how to read, and have a house, and
have a family, and have family in their house, and
have a real life of their own.

Emancipation
from
Freedmen's
viewpoint,
illustration
from Harper's
Weekly 1865

Professor Gallagher’s book, the Union War, explores the reasons why Union soldiers
were willing to lay down their lives simply to preserve the Union.
Eric Foner is the renowned Civil War and Reconstruction Era historian, his book, The
Second Founding, explores the Reconstruction Amendments that guaranteed all
citizens, including freed slaves, due process under the law. He also wrote a book on
the Free-Soil Party, which we plan to reflect on soon.
Eric Foner also wrote a hefty tome on Reconstruction history, which we were
planning to use for a video, but the problem is that many of the reforms passed by
the mixed southern legislatures of black and white Lincoln Republicans were
repealed under Jim Crow, to be reenacted in a different form after the Civil Rights
Era of the 1960’s. But he also has some shorter books on Reconstruction. Eric Foner
also wrote the Fiery Trial on Abraham Lincoln and slavery.

We plan to reflect on several biographies of Henry
Clay and Daniel Webster to gain a more complete
understanding of why ordinary Union soldiers were
willing to enlist and fight to simply preserve the
Union. Gary Gallagher’s book on the Union War,
while helpful, does not provide a complete answer to
this question.

To find the source of any direct
quotes in this blog, please type in
the phrase to the search box in
my blog to see the referenced
footnote.
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Confederacy Fought the Civil War to Preserve Slavery, Confederate Leaders Proclaimed

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Confederacy Fought the Civil War to Preserve Slavery, Confederate Leaders Proclaimed