Quote:
Originally Posted by Tuna
Slavery may be common place in human history, but slavery based on race is unique to the United States.
Also, the slavery element definitely was not inflated by the North. I suggest you look up some of the speeches from Secession Commissioners of the South for a little insight as to their main reasons for war.
|
I was almost ready to say that slavery based on race was unique to the US but then I stopped myself because while it's the greatest contemporary example of race based slavery, its not the only place that used black slaves - and throughout history any kind of differences between people has been "useful" in distinguishing which groups might be used as slaves - race normally being an obvious one. But in the US racism and slavery are especially well tied together.
And I don't mean to say that slavery was a non-issue in the war, only that this kind of good vs. evil/right vs. wrong slant that you can put on the war was a bit overplayed by the victors. A major reason slavery ended up being abolished was probably just that it became more expensive to own slaves than it was to hire workers and have them clothe, feed, and house themselves. It seems kind of silly to pretend that an epidemic change of heart could induce that kind of massive social change.
02-28-2012, 01:33 PM
Threaded Mode