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The liberal and biased historians have slanted history to the point it is hard to see the reality of the times. Here are some things that are rarely or never discussed when the Civil War is debated.
Blacks were mostly centered in the South and there were very few in places like Iowa, Nebraska, Michigan, Pennsylvania, or the New England States, all of which committed thousands of troops to the war effort. In those States at that time blacks were mostly looked down upon (and still are). Where they were numbers of blacks was in the big cities, New York City for example.
It is hard to find good numbers on the subject but one number that is pretty much confirmed is that when Lincoln was elected there were approximately 488,000 free blacks in the U.S. and about 1/2 those, 226,000 were in the Northern States. But, according to the census, there were only 37 slaves in the entire Northern States. Another study based on the 1860 census is that in New England, the Mid-Atlantic States, and the Midwest the total population was approximately 22 million and of those 225,000 (1%) were black! If that study (www.bowdoin.edu), is true, most of the people in the Northern States had never seen a black and certainly never seen a slave.
Why then would they rally around the flag and march down and kill 1/2 million southerners to free slaves they had never seen?
The God’s honest truth is the South never had a chance. 22 million versus 9 million... The North is where the weapons of war could be manufactured in mass. In the South they could produce millions of cotton balls but not enough minie balls.
A few more statistics:
2,200,000 Northerners served in the military during the Civil War
800,000 Southerners served in the Confederate Military
The North’s casualty loss was 17%
The South’s casualty rate was 32%
Out of the 31 million people in the U.S. we had about 400,000 people that “owned,” one or more slaves or 1.3% of the population.
Bottom line is that it is complicated, but the old saw that the Civil War as all about slavery, is a lie. In 1863, there were over 100 blacks killed in NYC, riots that came about because the blacks were treated worse there than in some places in the South.
The anti-slavery radicals in the North (like John Brown) fomented violence. In the South good old boys like Luther Bouchell (my wife’s great great great granddaddy) had never seen a black let alone a slave. He was told, “The Yankees are coming down here and they are gonna kill your mama and papa and steal your chickens.”
So he left his home in the Ozark Mountains and fought for his family… he didn’t know diddly about slaves, he wasn’t fighting against them, he was fighting for his mama, papa and the chickens. He was captured and survived two years in a POW prison in Georgia.
Life in the big plantations of the South was not typical of the common southerner that eked out a living in a little log cabin or a little mud hut on the prairie. The commoners didn’t own slaves and in fact didn’t own much if anything.
So, if you believe the Civil War was all about slavery you must not understand that the war was a rich person’s war that was (as usual) fought by the poor. It was about money and control... Slaves were only used as the excuse. The big industrialists of the North and the big plantation owners of the South were the reason for the war... very few of either actually fought,
Blacks were mostly centered in the South and there were very few in places like Iowa, Nebraska, Michigan, Pennsylvania, or the New England States, all of which committed thousands of troops to the war effort. In those States at that time blacks were mostly looked down upon (and still are). Where they were numbers of blacks was in the big cities, New York City for example.
It is hard to find good numbers on the subject but one number that is pretty much confirmed is that when Lincoln was elected there were approximately 488,000 free blacks in the U.S. and about 1/2 those, 226,000 were in the Northern States. But, according to the census, there were only 37 slaves in the entire Northern States. Another study based on the 1860 census is that in New England, the Mid-Atlantic States, and the Midwest the total population was approximately 22 million and of those 225,000 (1%) were black! If that study (www.bowdoin.edu), is true, most of the people in the Northern States had never seen a black and certainly never seen a slave.
Why then would they rally around the flag and march down and kill 1/2 million southerners to free slaves they had never seen?
The God’s honest truth is the South never had a chance. 22 million versus 9 million... The North is where the weapons of war could be manufactured in mass. In the South they could produce millions of cotton balls but not enough minie balls.
A few more statistics:
2,200,000 Northerners served in the military during the Civil War
800,000 Southerners served in the Confederate Military
The North’s casualty loss was 17%
The South’s casualty rate was 32%
Out of the 31 million people in the U.S. we had about 400,000 people that “owned,” one or more slaves or 1.3% of the population.
Bottom line is that it is complicated, but the old saw that the Civil War as all about slavery, is a lie. In 1863, there were over 100 blacks killed in NYC, riots that came about because the blacks were treated worse there than in some places in the South.
The anti-slavery radicals in the North (like John Brown) fomented violence. In the South good old boys like Luther Bouchell (my wife’s great great great granddaddy) had never seen a black let alone a slave. He was told, “The Yankees are coming down here and they are gonna kill your mama and papa and steal your chickens.”
So he left his home in the Ozark Mountains and fought for his family… he didn’t know diddly about slaves, he wasn’t fighting against them, he was fighting for his mama, papa and the chickens. He was captured and survived two years in a POW prison in Georgia.
Life in the big plantations of the South was not typical of the common southerner that eked out a living in a little log cabin or a little mud hut on the prairie. The commoners didn’t own slaves and in fact didn’t own much if anything.
So, if you believe the Civil War was all about slavery you must not understand that the war was a rich person’s war that was (as usual) fought by the poor. It was about money and control... Slaves were only used as the excuse. The big industrialists of the North and the big plantation owners of the South were the reason for the war... very few of either actually fought,
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