“Everybody” knows that it was about slavery.
Except for the people who argue it was about “States Rights”.
My brother used to say that. He’s a bit of a Civil War “buff”.
Well, my response to that argument was “Yeah, some states wanted the right to have slaves.”
So, I was reading Bag of Bones (by Stephen King) yesterday.
It brought up the idea that for many of the participants the Civil War wasn’t necessarily about slavery. Racism was rampant in both the north and south. What many of the northerners were fighting for was the idea that you can’t just decide to not be part of the country anymore. At least, that’s the idea in this book.
Well, why can’t you leave the country? The original 13 colonies decided to not be part of England anymore. And the other states had to decide to join the United States. A state can’t change its mind? Sounds like the mafia. Once you’re in, you’re in for life.
In a sense, we went to war just to maintain the status quo. Maybe sometimes that’s what war is about.
America, love it or leave it.
…except you can’t leave it. Well, you can, but that just means go away; if you don’t agree with us we don’t want you here.
Ah, yes…the land of the free.
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