[HPFGU-OTChatter] Waw of Nawthun Aggray-u-shun

[Amanda Lewanski]

Amy Z wrote:

> /War to Free the Slaves

Well, at the outset it was only about slavery inasmuch as the southern
states resented the authority at D.C. trying to dictate their internal
policies. Hence the "war of northern aggression." The South seceded
because they believed the federal government had exceeded the rights
granted to it by the Constitution. Other Constitutionalists of the time
disagreed, however. Hard to say how history would read had the South
held its own; as far as I've read, both opinions held weight.

Be that as it may, the slaves were freed during the war by the
Emancipation Proclamation, but that was a tactical move to erode the
South's position--the slaves were a major part of the work force, and
the North was trying to get them to turn, or to run away, or both. The
Proclamation freed *only* the slaves in the rebel lands, too--slaves in
the Union and territories, etc., were not freed until after the war, I
believe. My husband's the real Civil War buff, I'd have to ask him when
that was.

So slavery was an integral issue to the Civil War, but not in the way
most people think. The North went to war to preserve the Union, after
the issue of states' rights caused the South to secede. It was just that
the pivotal states' rights issue was slavery.

--Amanda, who thinks the claims of the guy who says Texas isn't legally
part of the Union have some merit
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