Counterpoint Why Non Slave holding Southerners Fought

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GwilymT

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At the susquisentennial of the Civil War, Historian Gordon Rhea, himself a descendant of Confederate soldiers, gave a talk at the Charleston Library Society on the often asked question of non-slave owning southerners’ motivations to fight for the Confederacy, whose expressed purpose for being was the protection of slavery. He discusses fears of slave uprisings, the pro slavery propaganda of politicians, preachers and community leaders, and good old fashioned racist fear of black equality as the main drivers.

In the early portion of his address he asks and lays out his method of answering:

“ But what about those Southerners who did not own slaves? Why would they risk their livelihoods by leaving the United States and pledging allegiance to a new nation grounded in the proposition that all men are not created equal, a nation established to preserve a type of property that they did not own?

In order to find an answer to this question, please travel back with me to the South of 1860. Let’s put ourselves into the skin of Southerners who lived there then. That’s what being an historian is about: putting yourself into the minds of people who lived in another time to understand things from their perspective, from their point of view. Let’s set aside what people said and wrote later, after the dust had settled. Let’s wipe the historic slate clean and visit the South of 150 years ago through the documents that survive from that time.”

Here are his remarks in full:


I find them informative and thoughtful. Are these the reasons non-slaveholders fought?
 
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