Could secession and racism be so intimately connected? Had white supremacy also form a critical element in the secessionist cause? Through the book Apostles of Disunion, the historian Charles Dew attempts to respond to these questions examining the speeches and letters from the secession commissioners who were in charge of convincing the Southern States to secede from the Union in 1860 – 1861. This essay will present the aspects of culture, society and politics the people from the South were trying to protect, the real reasons they had to secede from the Union, and how these reasons have been changed by some groups since the civil war. It is evident that racial issues and protection of slavery were the central concern on the reasons presented by the commissioners, rather than the consternation for the economy or the defense of the States Rights.
Many aspects of Southern culture were threatened by Lincoln’s administration proposal of equality between black and white races. In the North, the economy was …show more content…
And, why is important to point this out? When the Confederates were defeated by the Union, some of the commissioners tried to reform their reasons, arguing the South took the decision to secede from the Union to save the principles of the Constitution. A sort of system of beliefs was created by the defeated Southerners called The Lost Cause, in which they justified their actions, defending the slavery as something not cruel but benevolent and necessary. They thought that they were defeated because of North’s numeric superiority, and not because they did not have good leaders and abilities to fight the war. Nowadays, there are still some groups of people, called Neo-Confederates, who believes that the Civil War was not fought for the premise of the preservation of slavery but was fought for the preservation of the States’ Rights. They defend these beliefs and consider the white race as a superior
Many aspects of Southern culture were threatened by Lincoln’s administration proposal of equality between black and white races. In the North, the economy was …show more content…
And, why is important to point this out? When the Confederates were defeated by the Union, some of the commissioners tried to reform their reasons, arguing the South took the decision to secede from the Union to save the principles of the Constitution. A sort of system of beliefs was created by the defeated Southerners called The Lost Cause, in which they justified their actions, defending the slavery as something not cruel but benevolent and necessary. They thought that they were defeated because of North’s numeric superiority, and not because they did not have good leaders and abilities to fight the war. Nowadays, there are still some groups of people, called Neo-Confederates, who believes that the Civil War was not fought for the premise of the preservation of slavery but was fought for the preservation of the States’ Rights. They defend these beliefs and consider the white race as a superior