Yes, the Civil War was about slavery

Banned Histories of Race in America

Ever since Nikki Haley neglected to cite slavery as the cause for the Civil War, “states’ rights” fools have come out of the woodwork again. My experience of these types is that they usually of bad faith. But, if you’ve got one or more of these folks in your life, and you think they just don’t know any better, here’s a little note you can toss in an email, DM or comment section to straighten them out.

Dear_____,

The Civil War was not about states’ rights, unless you’re talking about the single right to enslave Black people. That’s not according to me. That’s according to the Confederacy itself.

South Carolina was the first state to secede and in 1860, the South Carolina Declaration of Secession directly stated the reason as, “an increasing hostility on the part of the non-slaveholding states to the institution of slavery”.

South Carolina was not the only seceding state to openly name slavery in its secession ordinance. Alabama seceded to join “the slaveholding States of the South,” Texas joined “her sister slave-holding States,” and Virginia seceded because of, “the oppression of the Southern slave-holding states."

Mississippi declared, “Our position is thoroughly identified with the institution of slavery — the greatest material interest of the world.”

On March 21, 1861, Vice President of the Confederacy, Alexander Stephens delivered the Cornerstone Speech. It was called such because in it he said, “Our new government is founded upon… the great truth that the negro is not equal to the white man; that slavery subordination to the superior race is his natural and normal condition.”

Stephens went on to say of the Confederacy, “The new constitution has put at rest, forever, all the agitating questions relating to our peculiar institution African slavery as it exists amongst us the proper status of the negro in our form of civilization. This was the immediate cause of the late rupture and present revolution.”

The Confederacy was very clear about slavery being the purpose of their insurrection. There were no uncertain terms and any argument otherwise must be had with the Confederacy itself.

Sincerely,

Your name

Sources:

https://constitutioncenter.org/the-constitution/historic-document-library/detail/south-carolina-declaration-of-secession-1860

https://www.mshistorynow.mdah.ms.gov/issue/a-declaration-of-the-immediate-causes-which-induce-and-justify-the-secession-of-the-state-of-mississippi-from-the-federal-union - :~:text=Our position is thoroughly identified,the commerce of ht

https://www.learningforjustice.org/classroom-resources/texts/hard-history/cornerstone-speech

https://www.digitalhistory.uh.edu/disp_textbook.cfm?smtID=3&psid=3953