Thinking about the Civil War, and the reality of why it was fought

I was listening to the podcast of our recent show, and Ralph drew a comparison between the American Civil War and the Iraqi civil war. Yes, both of them were groups of people within the same country fighting one another, but something I neglected to bring up at the time is the reason why America fought the Civil War. It was a lot more than to "free the slaves," as Ralph indicated.

"I have no interest in making blacks equal to whites, they are of a lesser quality and this I am sure of." -Abraham Lincoln

The public schools teach the simplistic idea that the north wanted to free the slaves... creating the heroic moral vision of the North. Let's not forget the South came to Boston to purchase the slaves, so the north indeed made $$$ from slavery.

Why did the North want to free the slaves? They did not want to free the slaves because of moral reasons, this is a plain LIE. Politicians and factory owners of the North wanted to end slavery for one big reason - cheap labor. The Industrial Revolution is the reason why the North wanted to free the slaves. Before the Industrial Revolution, when the North depended on the South for goods, there was no problem with slavery.

With the Industrial Revolution in full swing, the folks with the money in the North could use the cheap labor for their factories. The northerners themselves did not want this to happen; they did not want the freed slaves coming to the North to take the jobs.

Another reason the Civil War was fought was over the northern tariff. The federal government imposed a large tariff for the South to pay in order to fund the Industrial Revolution. The South felt this was unfair, and wanted to leave the union. In 1860, 87% of tariff revenue was paid by the South, which strengthened the Industrial Revolution and blocked imports from other countries. The South was ready to leave the union.

At this point, Lincoln stepped in to stop the South from leaving, which would have caused funding for the industrial revolution (by means of the tariff) to end. The North joined the cause because of powerful figures envisioning the cheap labor that could be gained from the slaves of the South.

Money was the reason for the Civil War, not the North's "compassionate desire to end slavery because it was inhumane"

One thing I cannot stand is people buying into the storybook history presented to Americans every single day in classrooms across this nation. Things are always more complex than they seem.

Jared

Ralph adds: We should keep in mind that history is always written by the victors. The North - and thus the U.S. - ascribed moral certainty to their fight, and, over the years, it has turned into a "storybook". The danger of any history, regardless of where or how it is learned, is that it is always colored as its authors see fit, and the further we get from it, the harder it is to know the truth. The one advantage we have, moving forward through the Digital Revolution, is that we can preserve our history in perpetuity, as such making it somewhat harder to alter the past based on the tastes and wishes of those who control the "official" pens.