[April 23, 2024] I’ve long asked myself this question, “Why did non-slaveholding Southerners fight in the Civil War?” Like so many Americans, I had relatives who fought and died on both sides of the war, many brother against brother opposing each other on the same battlefield. But the question is rarely discussed or just dismissed as unimportant.
Fortunately, Gordon Rhea – lawyer, historian, and author of several books on the U.S. Civil War – addressed the Charleston Library Society to give some insight into that question. Mr. Rhea gives thoughtful answers to this age-old question, and I believe he is spot on. What follows is a summary of Mr. Rhea’s address, given on January 25, 2011.
The short answer to this question is the U.S. presidential election of Abraham Lincoln, a Republican. The issue of slavery was not new, and the tensions between slave-holding states and free states were great. Lincoln opposed slavery, and his position was both clear and a direct threat to slavery and the culture of the South. Today, it is hard to believe that people would identify so closely with slavery, but at that time, it was expected.
Yet, it is easy to see why slave owners saw Lincoln as a threat. But what about Southerners who did not own slaves? Why risk their livelihoods by leaving the United States and pledging to a new nation grounded in the pro-slavery ideology?
Mr. Rhea asks us to put ourselves into the minds of those who lived in the South at the time. Slaves, he notes, did not just work on the plantations of the day. Today, we see those slaves as toiling away on plantations, but that is a distorted view.
“More than 4 million enslaved human beings lived in the South, and they touched every aspect of the region’s social, political, and economic life. Slaves did not just work on plantations. In cities such as Charleston, they cleaned the streets, toiled as bricklayers, carpenters, blacksmiths, bakers, and laborers. They worked as dockhands and stevedores, grew and sold produce, purchased goods and carted them back to their masters’ homes where they cooked the meals, cleaned, raised the children, and tended to the daily chores.”
Southerners were influenced by local community leaders, the church, and politicians. Furthermore, they were increasingly isolated as Northern publications demanded an immediate end to slavery, and the British parliament terminated slavery in the British West Indies. By the late 1850s, most white Southerners viewed themselves as prisoners in their own country, condemned by what they saw as a hysterical abolition movement.
The message to all Southerners, including those who were non-slaveholders, was that the entire South was in danger. Nothing could be more undignified, anti-Christ, anti-South, than the abolitionist emancipation of slaves and elevating the “Negroes” to an equality with himself and his family.
The clash of cultures came to a head in 1861 when, on April 12 to 14, Confederate General P.G.T. Beauregard’s forces forced the surrender of Fort Sumpter’s Union garrison. By this time, several states had already seceded from the Union, and Confederate militias had begun seizing United States forts and property. The American Battlefield Trust has a good summary of this battle.
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NOTE: The Confederate Civil War flag used as a thumbnail is from the 7thg Texas Regiment that fought at Chickamauga and Fort Donelson.
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I never gave this much thought, but now it makes a lot of sense. Well-done, Gen. Satterfield.
I never gave this much thought but thank you, Gen. Satterfield for thinking about this. I would think that this idea can apply also to what is happening in our formal education system today and on college campuses. Just read today’s article “College is Worse than Useless, it’s Dangerous.”
Gen. Satterfield. Very informative and helpful. While most people today, esp. young folks, don’t give a hoot one way or the other why non-slaveholders fought in the civil war, they should because this tells us a lot about the psychology of people. 💖
Jerome, exactly right.
YES! We should understand this.
“More than 4 million enslaved human beings lived in the South, and they touched every aspect of the region’s social, political, and economic life. Slaves did not just work on plantations. In cities such as Charleston, they cleaned the streets, toiled as bricklayers, carpenters, blacksmiths, bakers, and laborers. They worked as dockhands and stevedores, grew and sold produce, purchased goods and carted them back to their masters’ homes where they cooked the meals, cleaned, raised the children, and tended to the daily chores.” – Mr. Gordon Rhea. thank you sir for helping to clarify what actually went on in the South.
Gen. Satterfield is giving us some great information today so that we can learn that the world is not always as it seems. And, it shows us that people will sacrifice everything to protect what they see as sacrosanct. Whether religous based, cultural, propaganda, etc. they will throw themselves at the problem with every piece of their moral fiber. That is why non-slaveholders fought against the Union.
Fortunately, for many reasons, the South lost the war. And today we are re-fighting for the free thinkers.
Great article, thanks for highlighting the ideas here, Gen. Satterfield. 😁
This all makes you wonder what we are learning today and if it is a conscious attempt to insert propaganda as education. Shameful behavior by our so-called experts.
Yeah, Cow Blue, i was starting to think the same thing. The problem, is that if you write this kind of real analysis and thinking, then the social media giants use algorithms to target your words and remove them or bury them so others cannot find it. That is censorship at its finest. We call that tyranny and many left-learning Americans love censorship because they believe they are better than the rest of us. They think they are morally superior, smarter, more sophisticated, and are among the right folks who are positioned to tell the rest of us what to do. The FACT that our social media encourages this ideology and supports it fully (they think the same things), is a scary thing and bad for America.
Good article, and informative.
Now, that was interesting. I had no idea. The stereotyped 1800’s southerner was a SLAVE OWNER who beat their slaves and starved them into submission. The reality is apparently much different as most southerners were not just NOT slave owners, but opposed it on personal religous grounds. But they still fought for the Confederacy because of the culture of the south.
So many things that we do not know, but more problematic is that these stereo types are being “fed” to us by Google and other search engines to get us to think they are true because it fits the radical anti-American, anti-free speech ideology of crazies.
Well said, Jeff and Kenny.
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Jeff, yep. We are fed garbage by our “education” system.