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Eugene Foner Slavery The Civil War Summary

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[According to Foner’s “Slavery, the Civil War, and Reconstruction,” the major reason for fighting the Civil War seems to not only stem from the issue of slavery, but also fear. In his essay, Foner uses several historical views to show how many people viewed slavery very differently even in the 1900s and how it came to impact the start of the Civil War. Furthermore, by comparing and contrasting these views with new evidence and comparative analysis the causes of the Civil War can be determined to not only stem from institution of slavery, but from several other factors.]
The first outlook Foner depicts is that of slavery as a "civilizing institution." According to this view, slavery was only instituted as a necessary evil because American-Americans were an inferior race, who needed a way to integrate into society in a civilized manner. These African-Americans were viewed as being unable to fit in with American society and as such they were placed in plantations. …show more content…
He believed that both slaves and slave owners had mutual responsibilities and obligations, and that slave-owners were supposed to take care of slaves. According to Genovese, slave-owners’ saw themselves as being responsible for an extended family of sorts. They were supposed to take care of not only their slaves, but all the white women and children living on the plantations. This view is significant because it so greatly differs from the view so prominent in the North. Many people in the North viewed slavery as the second and third stereotype Foner mentioned at the beginning of his essay, but in reality slavery was far more complicated and in some cases civilized than many Northerners gave it credit

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