Was the Civil War About Slavery? | 5 Minute Video

What caused the Civil War? Did the North care about abolishing slavery? Did the South secede because of slavery? Or was it about something else entirely...perhaps states' rights? Colonel Ty Seidule, Professor of History at the United States Military Academy at West Point, settles the debate.

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Script:

Was the American Civil War fought because of slavery? More than 150 years later this remains a controversial question.

Why? Because many people don't want to believe that the citizens of the southern states were willing to fight and die to preserve a morally repugnant institution. There has to be another reason, we are told. Well, there isn't.

The evidence is clear and overwhelming. Slavery was, by a wide margin, the single most important cause of the Civil War -- for both sides. Before the presidential election of 1860, a South Carolina newspaper warned that the issue before the country was, "the extinction of slavery," and called on all who were not prepared to, "surrender the institution," to act. Shortly after Abraham Lincoln's victory, they did.

The secession documents of every Southern state made clear, crystal clear, that they were leaving the Union in order to protect their "peculiar institution" of slavery -- a phrase that at the time meant "the thing special to them." The vote to secede was 169 to 0 in South Carolina, 166 to 7 in Texas, 84 to 15 in Mississippi. In no Southern state was the vote close.

Alexander Stephens of Georgia, the Confederacy's Vice President clearly articulated the views of the South in March 1861. "Our new government," he said, was founded on slavery. "Its foundations are laid, its cornerstone rests upon the great truth that the Negro is not equal to the white man; that slavery, submission to the superior race, is his natural and normal condition." Yet, despite the evidence, many continue to argue that other factors superseded slavery as the cause of the Civil War.

Some argue that the South only wanted to protect states' rights. But this raises an obvious question: the states' rights to what? Wasn't it to maintain and spread slavery? Moreover, states' rights was not an exclusive Southern issue. All the states -- North and South -- sought to protect their rights -- sometimes they petitioned the federal government, sometimes they quarreled with each other. In fact, Mississippians complained that New York had too strong a concept of states' rights because it would not allow Delta planters to bring their slaves to Manhattan. The South was preoccupied with states' rights because it was preoccupied first and foremost with retaining slavery.

Some argue that the cause of the war was economic. The North was industrial and the South agrarian, and so, the two lived in such economically different societies that they could no longer stay together. Not true.

In the middle of the 19th century, both North and South were agrarian societies. In fact, the North produced far more food crops than did the South. But Northern farmers had to pay their farmhands who were free to come and go as they pleased, while Southern plantation owners exploited slaves over whom they had total control.

And it wasn't just plantation owners who supported slavery. The slave society was embraced by all classes in the South. The rich had multiple motivations for wanting to maintain slavery, but so did the poor, non-slave holding whites. The "peculiar institution" ensured that they did not fall to the bottom rung of the social ladder. That's why another argument -- that the Civil War couldn't have been about slavery because so few people owned slaves -- has little merit.

[skysthelimitvideos]

Only time Praguer and Crash Course have ever agreed about anything ever,

[krnyjan]

South fought to preserve slavery. Coming up next: why was Robert E. Lee a good guy and we should have statues of him.

[malic_zarith]

Oh wow, I totally expected a states rights argument. I actually agree with you on this. Good job

[OtmShank]

Was the Civil War about slavery? Yes, of course. The rebels cited "slave" and "slavery" a whopping 80 separate times in their own declarations of secession, and openly admitted "Our position is *thoroughly identified* with the institution of slavery -- the greatest material interest of the world." All those documents are free online; anyone can read them, and learn the truth.

[TheStapleGunKid]

_"As time passes, people, even of the South, will begin to wonder how it was possible that their ancestors ever fought for or justified institutions which acknowledged the right of property in man."_ --US Grant

[iscrewy]

I'm going to be honest, knowing Prager, I thought this was going to support some revisionist history that the American Civil War wasn't fought over slavery; and when I saw that the speaker is a military guy, that thought was strengthened. Very relieved that is not the case.

[KolkoCat]

Didn't expect PragerU to make the best "Checkmate Lincolnites" video I've seen.

[texasfan]

When the Confederate states’ declarations to secede from the Union literally state that the preservation of slavery was their only reason, that pretty much answers the question. These are all publicly available by the way.

[jordanbratcher]

I'm not gonna lie...I was worried we were about to be hit with some propaganda. I'm glad I watched this video. The issue is literally a matter of people being willfully ignorant of history.

[marthaindahouse]

"A surprise, to be sure, but a welcome one"

[robertnewell]

If only all PragerU were this well done & honest

[creepypastacraft]

“nO iTs AbOuT STatEs rIgHtS” states rights to do what? :)

[UnevenerGgc]

The fact that this is even a question shows the damage the US is suffering

[Steven-ggbn]

the fact that even pragerU made this video to distance themselves from confederate apologists speaks volumes

[Rundstedt]

_"The Lost Cause still endures in the 21st century because it serves many sentimental and racial desires in the present."_ - David W. Blight. Professor of American history at Yale University.

[buddyltd]

This is possibly one of the most logical and sensible Prager Uni videos. Well done.

[isshintheglocksaintPlotagon]

When John Oliver and Prager U agree with each other

[unolimpico]

Shit's wrong when even PragerU debunk the Lost Cause myth

[rundstedt]

_"The question of Slavery is the rock upon which the Old Government split: it is the cause of secession."_ - G. T. Yelverton, of Coffee County, Alabama, speaking to the Alabama Secession Convention on January 25, 1861

[mobrsco]

This is probably the first PragerUniversity video I agree with.