Yes, Rev but the Declaration of the Causes of Secession clearly states the final straw:
Yet given Southern society who were these people? Almost certainly they were representatives of the planter aristocracy...with maybe a few preachers thrown in because, after all, jesus knows what is best for slaves! It still does not answer the question of why the commons lined up shoulder to shoulder blasting away with muskets and cannon. There is another factor involved and I think Shel is closest to it. The south assiduously cultivated an identity of being different.
The shockwaves from John Brown's raid on Harper's Ferry can not be underestimated. Brown's stated goal in attacking the arsenal was to obtain weapons for a slave insurrection. While many in the north considered Brown a kook many in the south took the threat he posed to heart. As was noted in the Ken Burns series on the Civil War, the militia system in the south had been a joke in the south but in the wake of the raid people began to take it seriously. The Confederates thus gained a two year head start on military drill which would serve them well early on. The notion of an army of rampaging slaves could be envisioned by southerners of all ranks. Andrew Jackson had expelled the Indians in the 1830's and they didn't want to go through that shit again.
So the "us" versus "them" mentality had some basis in reality even if Lincoln was not the boogeyman they portrayed him to be.
Quote: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. He is to be entrusted with the administration of the common Government, because he has declared that that "Government cannot endure permanently half slave, half free," and that the public mind must rest in the belief that slavery is in the course of ultimate extinction.
Yet given Southern society who were these people? Almost certainly they were representatives of the planter aristocracy...with maybe a few preachers thrown in because, after all, jesus knows what is best for slaves! It still does not answer the question of why the commons lined up shoulder to shoulder blasting away with muskets and cannon. There is another factor involved and I think Shel is closest to it. The south assiduously cultivated an identity of being different.
The shockwaves from John Brown's raid on Harper's Ferry can not be underestimated. Brown's stated goal in attacking the arsenal was to obtain weapons for a slave insurrection. While many in the north considered Brown a kook many in the south took the threat he posed to heart. As was noted in the Ken Burns series on the Civil War, the militia system in the south had been a joke in the south but in the wake of the raid people began to take it seriously. The Confederates thus gained a two year head start on military drill which would serve them well early on. The notion of an army of rampaging slaves could be envisioned by southerners of all ranks. Andrew Jackson had expelled the Indians in the 1830's and they didn't want to go through that shit again.
So the "us" versus "them" mentality had some basis in reality even if Lincoln was not the boogeyman they portrayed him to be.
