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@selah-chelyah

Can’t say I’ve read that one yet, actually. I am definitely interested in getting my hands on it now, though.

With Lee, In Virginia, by G.A. Henty is one that I have read, roughly halfway through high school. It takes place through the eyes of a southerner (plantation owning) protagonist. Again, a work of fiction, but early in the story, it mentions the protagonist and most of his fellow Virginia slave owners treating their slaves totally unlike the concept that had been driven into my head. And what’s interesting to note, is that of all the stories Henty wrote, the Civil War is one of the events that occurred during his lifetime, and as a Brit, he had no reason to favor one side or the other.

But if I’m not mistaken, it was Henty’s book that suggested a slave owner really had no reason to treat his slaves cruelly. Yes, he would’ve viewed them as property, and wrongly so, but as property, they would hence be real estate. A sizeable investment which logic would dictate taking care of.

Now, I was, am, and always will be, a natural skeptic of all things ever. So no, I didn’t have some sudden epiphany and immediately decide Henty was more of an authority on the subject than all who would present evidence of slave owners treating their slaves cruelly.

But it did put me on the path to questioning my history books. It made me realize, ‘Hey, there could very well be a whole other side of the war that nobody discusses any more, an unpopular opinion that has become taboo and been drowned in propoganda.

Yeah, the evidence may be a bit sketchy. Yeah there might not be a whole lot. Yeah there might be tons of evidence supporting the politically correct point of view. But if history is written by the victors, that’s what we’d expect to see.

But over the years, it dawned on me that the logic doesn’t add up.

~Why would any slave owner in their right mind abuse that which they paid good money for?

~Why would a government, which in that same era was oppressing the Native Americans and legalizing indentured servanthood, suddenly get the overwhelming urge to free slaves and invest in a whole war over it?

~Why would the fate of the south end up in the hands of men like Robert E. Lee and Stonewall Jackson? Lee opposed slavery. He had been offered a command in the Union army, but remained loyal to Virginia. Why would he choose loyalty to a state over the chance to quickly abolish slavery, unless maybe there was something else at stake? And Jackson, though he was not opposed to slavery, would’ve preferred that Negroes be free.

~Both Lee and Jackson supported a more aggressive campaign. Taking the war into the north, hitting their military infrastructure, striking hard and fast and giving the north no opportunity to gain a foothold in the south. This would’ve been correct, by all strategy and logic. But it was President Davis, solidly pro-slavery, who forced them to fight a more defensive war, which is what set the stage for the south’s defeat. Neither general was particularly pro-slave. So why wouldn’t they have gone and joined the north, where A, they could supposedly help free slaves, and B, they would readily gain permission not just to fight aggressively, but likely permission to get even more aggressive than either’s moral compass would’ve permitted (Sherman’s March, anyone?)

~If slavery was the whole issue, why would it take two full years of war before the Emancipation Proclamation? But if freeing the slaves was just a side-gimmick tacked on in order to raise more support for the war during a morale low, such a move would make total sense.

I may find absolute answers to these questions some day. I may not. But I’m asking them anyway. That’s what sets mankind apart from the animal kingdom. We can question things. We don’t have to take things at face value–well, other than things God himself says, obviously. 😉

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Just a wild guess, but I can imagine why the south seceding would’ve sounded so terrible to the Union. Competition.

We fought the French. We fought the Spanish. We fought the British. We fought the Native Americans. We didn’t want to compete, we wanted to rule. We didn’t want equals. Today, Russia shares our position of world superpower. But imagine if we were sharing that position with another America? Imagine if they actually ended up stronger than us because their states retained sovereignty.

This is exactly how it goes in my story. My autonomous government grows to eventually become the 11th largest military and #1 most technologically advanced nation. And their strength worries my fictional US like the Israelite population in Egypt worried Pharaoh before he enslaved them.

Defeat your enemy before he becomes your enemy, even if he had no actual intention of being your enemy till you attacked him. And that is how you pave the road to conquering the world.