I enjoyed Ken Burn's Civil War series but it still annoyed me that they never mentioned the real reasons. As usual it was for money - taxes. The only revenue for the federal government was from tariffs and the South brought in over 70%. Southerners were willing to put up with it until the Federal Government began making laws, primarily in the slave trade in certain counties, which was slowly being weaned out by the States themselves, county by county.
This war was unnecessary. The south would have eventually shut slavery down. With mechanization, large number of slaves for manual labor would have phased out. This was a war of wickedness, pride, arrogance, and power. Both sides must have been complicit.
This was the first time that the Federal Government sought to wrestle power from the states and force one side to agree with the other side through the barrow of a gun.
I enjoyed Ken Burn's Civil War series but it still annoyed me that they never mentioned the real reasons. As usual it was for money - taxes. The only revenue for the federal government was from tariffs and the South brought in over 70%.
ReplyDeleteSoutherners were willing to put up with it until the Federal Government began making laws, primarily in the slave trade in certain counties, which was slowly being weaned out by the States themselves, county by county.
This war was unnecessary. The south would have eventually shut slavery down. With mechanization, large number of slaves for manual labor would have phased out. This was a war of wickedness, pride, arrogance, and power. Both sides must have been complicit.
This was the first time that the Federal Government sought to wrestle power from the states and force one side to agree with the other side through the barrow of a gun.