Students today should fully read the Emancipation Proclamation and note that it is dated on Jan 1, 1863, a year and a half after the Civil War started. How could this be if the war was about slavery? Many famous battles had already been fought before Lincoln freed the slaves: First Manassas (Bull Run), Gaines’ Mill, Malvern Hill, Second Manassas (Bull Run) and the bloodiest day of all, Antietam.

Most importantly students will read in the Emancipation Proclamation that Lincoln DID NOT FREE ALL THE SLAVES! He freed only the ones in areas of the South that were not under Federal control. Slaves in Kentucky, Maryland and Missouri were not freed by the Lincoln because those states did not officially secede. Even more shocking to most people is that Lincoln exempted from emancipation any and all slaves living in certain areas of the Confederate states. Slaves in certain counties of Virginia, Tennessee and Louisiana were NOT freed by Lincoln because these areas had many Union sympathizers. Lincoln freed only certain slaves in specific areas because he wanted to disrupt the economy of the areas of the South that rebelled. If Lincoln wanted to free slaves due to humanitarian reasons he would have freed them all.

Slavery was not legally abolished (by Federal law) everywhere in the United States until 1866, a year after Lincoln’d death.

You’re right about the lack of education in public schools everywhere about the Civil War or War Between the States. However, you’re wrong about the direct cause. All one has to do is study the great political debates and ultimate compomises from 1820 to 1860. All were about Slavery. If there had been no Slavery issue there would have been no war. In fact, no less of an authority than Dr. James Robertson of Virginia Tech will tell you the same thing. Slavery was “the” issue that could not be compromised under States Rights as it was indeed a “right” allowed under the Constitution at that time. It was also an “Economic” issue because so much of the wealth of the South was tied to slavery and to the slaves themselves. If a way had been found to provide restitution to the slave owners to compensate them for the loss of their slaves then perhaps the war could have been avoided but that obviously didn’t happen. If you read the Declaration of Secession from South Carolina it speaks of nothing but slavery. Same for Mississippi. The majority of the same declaration from Texas also is about slavery. No one can honestly say that slavery was a non issue or an issue that didn’t come up until Lincoln issued his Emancipation Proclamation. The latter was a political instrument but nevertheless pointed out the obvious. There are just too many in the South even today who just won’t accept facts when it comes to what ultimately caused the breakup of the Union. Every time I hear some member of the SCV give a speech about how slavery had nothing to do with the War I can only hope that one day the ignorance ends.

I totally support your comment on this web site. Too few are taught that “States Rights” was the impetus for our “Civil War”. It began as an ECONOMIC conflict a battle for equal representation in the unified “states” government, between the industrial Northern States the agricultural Southern States. Slavery became the rallying cry 2 years after the war’s beginning when President Lincoln searched for, and found, a rallying “ideal” for the Union
Army.

Lee Vanderhoef
Keswick, VA

Please read your history. Not all Confederate soldiers “supported slavery” as you say (nor were all Union soldiers anti-slavery.) Actually, only approximately 5% of CS soldiers owned slaves. Not only did not all CS soldiers support slavery, not all of them even supported secession. What all of them did support was the right of their state to determine its own form of governance as their forefathers did from England, and when a majority of the citizens of their state seceded and was invaded by the US military, they took up arms in what they felt was the defense of their homeland.

Gen Robert E Lee was anti-slavery and anti-secession. In a letter to his son in 1861 he lamented the dissolution of the Union and said that he would sacrifice all he had “except my honor” for its preservation. He then said he was returning home to Virginia “to share in the miseries with my people.”

SM Hood
Huntington WV