My Facebook discussion under a picture of a statue of Robert E Lee and his horse
The Civil War started because of secession. Its purpose was to keep the union together.
Lincoln did not free the slaves and then go to war to enforce and ensure their freedom.
The war was about keeping the union together and not allowing states in the south to secede. One of the big reasons, southern states wanted to secede may have been about slavery but owning slaves was not illegal. The war started because of secession and it was the union army that physically started the war by invading the southern states in order to force them not to secede. The south did not start the war unless you consider seceding from the union to be the definition of starting the war. Most of the people who fought in the south fought because they were invaded and their homes were taken over or threatened--- not because they wanted to keep slaves and/ or slavery. Over 99% of the people in the south were NOT slave owners and many of them were dirt poor. As the union army proceeded into the south they confiscated or took over southern homes and lands by force to house and feed their armies and the owners had no choice. And they did not free the slaves when they left. They left them to starve with the rest of the people.
Lincoln freed the slaves after the war and that was a very good thing but the way it was implemented was a humanitarian disaster. wherever the slaves were and whatever the work was that they did, for most of them it was the only life they had ever owned, and they knew how to deal with it.Wherever they were given to lay their head, it was the only home they had ever known and they were fed everyday. Most slaveowners, even cruel ones fed their slaves well enough to keep performing their work. They were financiall investments and were valuable to their owners in that sense.
Then suddenly , overnight, the entire slave population was turned our and sent away from their homes with no where to go, no place to lay their heads, no jobs to make a living and knowing very few people who could actually help them. Most of them barely survived in the beginning and many did not survive. Sharecropping became very big for a lot of them because they could get a place to stay usually in old slave quarters, and something to eat, and a little bit of money. Some of the slave owners allowed some of those who asked to stay on and keep doing what they were doing and get fed and get a little bit of money.
Frredom for the ex- slaves did not start out as the glorious thing that we perceive it to be. The way it was done turned the first days of freedom into a harsh and bitter reality that was barely survivable.
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B Mo Cates"A Declaration of the Immediate Causes which Induce and Justify the Secession of the State of Mississippi from the Federal Union.
In the momentous step which our State has taken of dissolving its connection with the government of which we so long formed a part, it is but just that we should declare the prominent reasons which have induced our course.
Our position is thoroughly identified with the institution of slavery-- the greatest material interest of the world."
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I did not say that slavery had nothing to do with it I was explaining a part of reality that people seem to forget about today as they oversimplify our history. I said that slavery may have been a big reason for secession BUT the war started because of secession and was fought to keep the union together. Again, I did not say sloavery had nothing to do with it, But the vast majority of people who were actually fighting on the confederate side were not fighting because of slavery. They were not there to fight for the slave owners to be able to keep their slaves. They were fighting because they were invaded, They were fighting to protet their homes and their landsThey were not fighting because of some 'high' ideal that had very little to do with them. The further away history gets the more we forget its day to day reality, And to say it was only about slavery distorts the reality of why each persons blood was spilt that adds up to more blood spolled than any other war in history . The overwheming majority of people in the south did not own slaves and they would not have voluntered to die so the relatively few rich slave owners coulld keep their slaves and neither would all those mothers have allowed their sons to go for that reason and the black regiments were not betraying their race!
Ursula StegallAnd I am glad that you took the time to find that document from a part of Mississippi's history that I am not proud of, It is a shameful part but I like to deal in truth and I like to keep all of those documents in folders for future reference. I do not judge history by only todays standards, You can never understand history if that is the only way you can see it, History must be taken in context, that is by seeing the standards of the day both locally and around the world/ It is not only people that learn and grow through time but societies do too. And we have come a long way since that time in history. That is not who we are today..
LINCOLN OFFERED LEE COMMAND OF THE UNION ARMY IN 1861. Because of his reputation as one of the finest officers in the United States Army, Abraham Lincoln offered Lee the command of the Federal forces in April 1861. Lee declined and tendered his resignation from the army when the state of Virginia seceded on April 17, arguing that he could not fight against his own people.
Colonel Robert E. Lee resigns from the United States army two days after he was offered command of the Union army and three days after his native state, Virginia, seceded from the Union. Lee opposed secession, but he was a loyal son of Virginia.
