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The states independly radified the 13th amendment ON THEIR OWN...
No, they passed them because slavery, as an institution, was dead anyway, due to the Emancipation Proclamation, and the fact that the Confederacy had collapsed - the slaves were almost all freed, the cities had been destroyed, the economy was in ruins, and there was basically no able-bodied young white men left to fight for their cause.
The states independly radified the 13th amendment ON THEIR OWN..
I'll ask you again, do you honestly believe that had the former Confederate states had representative legislatures (you know, that actually represented the Southern people) instead of Northern created Reconstruction Legislatures, the 13th Amendment would have been ratified?
No, they passed them because slavery, as an institution, was dead anyway, due to the Emancipation Proclamation, and the fact that the Confederacy had collapsed - the slaves were almost all freed, the cities had been destroyed, the economy was in ruins, and there was basically no able-bodied young white men left to fight for their cause.
Once again, 3/4th of the 36 states were needed to add the 13th amendment to the Constitution, and that was only to free 40,000 slaves.
To suggest the Civil War, in which 600,000 people died to free 40,000 was over slavery is ridiculous.
People dont tend to "die" to protect other people. For example, where is the war over abortion? They do however die to protect countries and freedoms.. And while obviously slavery is freedom, the ramifications were fare more reaching and impactful than slavery.
I'll ask you again, do you honestly believe that had the former Confederate states had representative legislatures (you know, that actually represented the Southern people) instead of Northern created Reconstruction Legislatures, the 13th Amendment would have been ratified?
32 of the 36 states radified the 13th amendment.. They did this ON THEIR OWN..
Had the confederate states represented the legislature it would never have been presented as an amendment but that doesnt mitigate the fact that 90% of states approved of freeing the slaves and adding it to the Constitution.
1. The Constitution says you cant just leave the union,and if you really want to argue the wording in the Constitution, we do have the federalist papers to back it up.
2. If the North had lost the war then the United States would have still said that no state had the right to leave the union.
3. If slavery was the disagreement then the war was over slavery, its that simple.
1. You can't leave the union. This is correct.
2. Had the North lost, yes they, would have said that. However, the odds of them losing were laughably slim. A young nation with a predominately agricultural economy didn't stand a change against a nation that had been around nearly 100 years with a more industrial/manufacturing based economy. They held there own but there lose was inevitable. Either way, I would predict that they would have rejoined eventually anyway. Progress would reach the Confederacy at one point, slavery would be abolished, and again, the Union was a superior industrial power and to be honest, the two countries would need each other.
3. Nope. Slavery was not the issue. It was preservation of the Union for the North and states rights for the South. There was certainly an element of racism to slavery, but there was actually a moderately reasonable economic argument. Salve states would struggle financially with the switch from slave labor to paid labor. And of course, economic hardship does not justify violation of human rights so the North still had the moral high ground, but to claim the Civil War was just about slavery is a massive over simplification.
32 of the 36 states radified the 13th amendment.. They did this ON THEIR OWN..
Had the confederate states represented the legislature it would never have been presented as an amendment but that doesnt mitigate the fact that 90% of states approved of freeing the slaves and adding it to the Constitution.
Are you being obstinate, or are you just completely ignorant of our history?
The legislatures of the former Confederate States - when they ratified the 13th Amendment - were in no way representative of the people of those former Confederate States. The people who had supported the Confederacy had been stripped of their voting rights. The legislatures of those former Confederate States - when they voted to ratify the 13th Amendment - had been packed by Northern Republicans (liberals) with scalawags and carpetbaggers.
I'll again ask, do you honestly believe that had the former Confederate states had representative legislatures (you know, that actually represented the Southern people) instead of Northern created Reconstruction Legislatures, the 13th Amendment would have been ratified?
Is there a reason you won't take a shot at answering that question?
This is American history as the lost cause. It was the tacit agreement between north and south to distort the history of the war.
The idea that 600,00- 700,000 Americans fought and died for the continuation of an institution that the side fighting for slavery wanted to end is hilariously ignorant.
In fact the total of dead Anericans in all of our wars is estimated to be 1.2million.
One war is responsible for as many deaths as all our other conflicts combined. That's called fierce fighting.
The southern states were fighting to maintain and expand slave states.
Like you wrote anyone can go to the source documents where the Southern states declare their reason for war and every state slavery was the reason they gave.
The fact that this conservative can pretend that 600,000-700,000 Americans died over slavery when it was going to end voluntarily is just a level of ignorance and dishonesty that I can't understand.
This is the way I look at it. While many did want to see slavery end, many were interested in just keeping the USA together. The North was not fighting to continue the institution of slavery. However, it started as trying to keep the Union together. The South was fighting to continue slavery, and there are documents to prove that.
People were willing to fight and die to keep slavery. And for people to say slavery had nothing to do with it is a big fat lie. I would agree with you on that. The South went at all lengths to keep slavery. The Fugitive Slave Act was part of that. It required Northerners to turn over any Black person suspected of being a runaway slave. This means even free Blacks in the North could be enslaved. Basically, it was the South's attempt to turn the North into a police state for them. The South was not going to let it go. Slavery was not ended voluntarily. It was ended with people kicking, screaming, and literally killing.
Are you being obstinate, or are you just completely ignorant of our history?
The legislatures of the former Confederate States - when they ratified the 13th Amendment - were in no way representative of the people of those former Confederate States. The people who had supported the Confederacy had been stripped of their voting rights. The legislatures of those former Confederate States - when they voted to ratify the 13th Amendment - had been packed by Northern Republicans (liberals) with scalawags and carpetbaggers.
I'll again ask, do you honestly believe that had the former Confederate states had representative legislatures (you know, that actually represented the Southern people) instead of Northern created Reconstruction Legislatures, the 13th Amendment would have been ratified?
Is there a reason you won't take a shot at answering that question?
So we had elected officials, who didnt represent their states according to you?
By the end of the American Revolution, slavery had proven unprofitable in the North and was dying out. Even in the South the institution was becoming less useful to farmers as tobacco prices fluctuated and began to drop. However, in 1793 Northerner Eli Whitney invented the cotton gin; this device made it possible for textile mills to use the type of cotton most easily grown in the South.
Cotton replaced tobacco as the South’s main cash crop and slavery became profitable again. Although most Southerners owned no slaves at all, by 1860 the South’s “peculiar institution” was inextricably tied to the region’s economy.
The war began as a struggle to preserve the Union, not a struggle to free the slaves, but many in the North and South felt that the conflict would ultimately decide both issues.
Slavery was on its way out the door. I assumed most americans were educated on this fact but clearly NOT
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