YANKEE MYTH # 4
The South Fought the War to Preserve Slavery
When discussing the motives for fighting the War for Southern Independence, the Yankee myth-makers have assigned virtue to the North and vice to the South. One of their favorite myths is to assert that Southerners were fighting to keep people in slavery. This lie has been, and still is, either stated or implied over and over until today most Southerners themselves accept their assigned position of national villains without so much as one word of protest. They just don't know any better.
The absurdity of this myth can be seen by understanding that at least 80% of the Confederate soldiers were NOT slave owners! And 94% of the entire Southern population owned NO slaves. Now let's try to put the extent of the Southern sacrifice into some type of modern perspective. During World War II, the United States lost approximately 300,000 military personnel. If the U.S. had lost personnel in WWII at the same rate (per capita) as the South did during the War for Southern Independence, the loss of American lives in WWII would not have been
300,000 but instead
6,000,000 (yes, six million people!)
Who in his right mind could honestly claim that the Southern soldiers and sailors, the vast majority of whom were Not slave owners, went to war against a numerically superior foe and endured four long years of hardships, all in order to allow a few rich men to keep their slaves? Yet, the Yankee myth of history has been so pervasive that this is the message that our children usually receive from the educational system paid for by our taxes.
Jefferson Davis wrote to his wife in February 1861 that, no matter what the result of the conflict was, the slave property of the South "will eventually be lost." This is further evidence that slavery was in demise in the South. Slavery was so NOT the issue of war in the South that it was not even Mentioned in President Davis' inaugural address. A partial list of SOUTHERN leaders who were NOT slave owners when war broke out include: Robert E. Lee, Joseph Johnston, A.P. Hill, Fitzhugh Lee, and J.E.B. Stuart. Remember, Northern General Ulysses Grant personally held slaves until they were freed in 1868, by the 13th Amendment.
Add to this evidence the testimony of some of the soldiers. The desire for independence was evident in countless letters early in the war and continues even after years of desperate struggle. For example,
George Washington Bolton of the 12th Louisiana Volunteer Infantry, C.S.A. sent this encouragement home to his people:
You seem to be in low spirits and fearful we will not gain our Independence. So long as there is an arm to raise in DEFENSE of Southern Liberties there is still hope. We must prove ourselves worthy of establishing an independent Government. In March of 1865, a soldier from Company K, 7th Louisiana Infantry, C.S.A. wrote home:
... with proud hearts and strong arms we are more determined than ever to apply every energy until our independence is achieved. From Shreveport, Louisiana, in April of 1865, come these words:
I firmly believe we will yet achieve our independence. We should also look at the fact that, IF the South wanted to keep slavery it never had to fire a single shot. The soldiers merely had to lay down their weapons and go home. Slavery would have remained in tact with no ill effects. The fact of the matter being, The South was unlawfully invaded and Her military fought a purely DEFENSIVE war. Remember that more than 99% of the war was fought in the SOUTH.
From these few examples it can be seen that these men were fighting for the same principles their forefathers fought for in the War For American Independence --
the right of self-government.
Another Yankee Myth Exposed....
