Events that Led to the Civil War: Slavery as an Economic Engine Not a Moal Isssue

[Minimalist]

Confederate recruiting posters:  1861

[Nope]

I thought there were soldiers at Ft Sumter because it was on American soil and wasn' t confederate until the war started.

The Cornerstone speech by the Vice President of the Confederate States is interesting. He mentions some economic reasons for the war but makes it clear that the continuation of slavery was the main issue.

Weird fact that I just discovered about my state. In NC it was against the law to teach an African American to read. Whites were fined 200 dollars if they were caught teaching blacks to read. African Americans were given a hundred lashes for the same offense.

[Minimalist]

Sumter was one of a series of coastal defense forts built in the aftermath of the War of 1812 across the south.  Designed to command the approaches and take advantage of the prevailing winds which sailing ships would have been forced to deal with approaching the harbor mouth it was rendered obsolete by the invention of steam powered warships and the introduction of heavy, rifled-cannon, on ships made its masonry walls merely decorative.

It was occupied by a small detachment of US troops.  Lincoln cleverly manipulated the rebs into firing the first shot.  Four states seceded after Sumter (Virginia, N. Carolina, Tennessee and Arkansas) but the rest of the border states held.

[Nope]

You forgot the biggest economic ringer, tariffs. The Southern economy depended on shipping cotton abroad, primarily to England and purchasing foreign manufactured goods primarily from England.  Tariffs on foreign manufactured goods forced Southerns to buy what were then shoddy and overpriced Northern manufactured goods, while selling to the British who were bent on retaliation for the high tariff.  

Ironically the Civil War boosted the North's manufacturing capabilities, and not having factories of their own was one of the many reasons the South lost.

For anyone who wants to read more about it, here is a little more about tariffs during that period.

http://www.theihs.org/academic/2011/01/2...ct-at-150/

The article about tariffs is a little confusing but interesting. Tariffs played a part in the war. Interestingly enough, the southern representatives could have probably defeated the Morrill Tariff if their states hadn't seceded from the union.

[Nope]

Sumter was one of a series of coastal defense forts built in the aftermath of the War of 1812 across the south.  Designed to command the approaches and take advantage of the prevailing winds which sailing ships would have been forced to deal with approaching the harbor mouth it was rendered obsolete by the invention of steam powered warships and the introduction of heavy, rifled-cannon, on ships made its masonry walls merely decorative.

It was occupied by a small detachment of US troops.  Lincoln cleverly manipulated the rebs into firing the first shot.  Four states seceded after Sumter (Virginia, N. Carolina, Tennessee and Arkansas) but the rest of the border states held.

Just because it is interesting, here is a link the order that the states seceded

State Date of Secession
South Carolina December 20, 1860
Mississippi        January 9, 1861
Florida        January 10, 1861
Alabama        January 11, 1861
Georgia        January 19, 1861
Louisiana        January 26, 1861
Texas        February 1, 1861
Virginia        April 17, 1861
Arkansas       May 6, 1861
North Carolina May 20, 1861
Tennessee June 8, 1861

http://americanhistory.about.com/od/civi..._order.htm

This thread made me curious why Tennessee and NC waited to leave the union. Apparently, NC still had land requirements to serve in the General Assembly. There was some support for the Union but after Ft. Sumter, the state sided with the Confederacy. I did not know that.

http://history.ncsu.edu/projects/cwnc/ex...conclusion

Thank you for showing those posters, Min. They are fascinating to read.

[Minimalist]

Lincoln issued his call for 75,000 volunteers on April 15.

Virginia seceded on the 17th.  They were not going to provide troops to suppress the other southern states.  More interestingly, had they not seceded, would they have permitted federal troops to cross Virginia in order to get at the rebels?

[The Grand Nudger]

It doesn't seem as though they would have been helpful, even if they might have been permissive (or, more accurately, if they were -told- to be permissive).

"Broke the spoke on that cannon cart did ya Yankee?.......go fuck yourself."
"Sorry, sir, we don't know -what- could have happened to that supply train."

[Rhondazvous]

That's interesting that the state I live in, Texas, was slow to succeed and slow to release it's slaves at the end of the war. We just "celebrated" Juneteenth the other day. Now I'm hearing g on the radio there're cats down in SC trying to remove the Confederate flag from the state buildings. One spokesman expressed dismay that Roof's actions are being set up as representative of what the Confederacy stood for. All these denials, and redefinitions and obfuscations are making things seem more complex than they really are.

My purpose in starting this thread was to show that the war had little to do with any moral motive to end slavery (except maybe on the part of Europe, but I think even a lot of that was because slavery gave the US an unfair advantage in the world market).

[The Grand Nudger]

Of course it didn't.....but we like our history simple (and we like to imagine ourselves wearing the white hats), so "war to end slavery" stuck.

[Nope]

Of course it didn't.....but we like our history simple (and we like to imagine ourselves wearing the white hats), so "war to end slavery" stuck.

Sadly, we all like simple history where we are the good guys.

http://avalon.law.yale.edu/19th_century/csa_missec.asp

Mississippi's Declaration of Secession is pretty straight forward as to the state's reason for leaving the union

Our position is thoroughly identified with the institution of slavery-- the greatest material interest of the world. Its labor supplies the product which constitutes by far the largest and most important portions of commerce of the earth. These products are peculiar to the climate verging on the tropical regions, and by an imperious law of nature, none but the black race can bear exposure to the tropical sun. These products have become necessities of the world, and a blow at slavery is a blow at commerce and civilization. That blow has been long aimed at the institution, and was at the point of reaching its consummation. There was no choice left us but submission to the mandates of abolition, or a dissolution of the Union, whose principles had been subverted to work out our ruin.