What the War was Really About

If you have to ask “what War?” then you probably aren’t from the South.

The War is the key event in American history. Nothing comes close. The War for Independence founded the United States, but The War for Southern Independence has come to define American history.

It dominates American memory. Unfortunately, as this excellent article at The American Thinker explains, that means most Americans have, at best, a third grade understanding of the conflict.

If you think “Abraham Lincoln went to war to free the slaves,” you are part of the problem.

If you believe “Juneteenth” is the day slavery ended in the United States, again, you received your education from political activists–or Twitter.

If you think the War was all about slavery and nothing but slavery, then you probably had the standard leftist–or neocon–history teacher in whatever grade you started leaning history on through college.

“Dr. Doofus” did a great job of indoctrination but a lousy job of teaching the complexities of the period.

That doesn’t mean slavery wasn’t an issue. Of course it was, but no one started shooting because they either wanted to keep slavery or end slavery. Southerners were concerned about the institution. They said as much, but as some Unionists pointed out, secession was going to destroy the institution, even if they were able to maintain independence.

There is so much to this story that you won’t get in Dr. Doofus’s class. By the way, you can find Dr. Doofus at just about any higher ed institution in America, or you can just scroll through #twitterhistorians. You’ll find Dr. Doofus all over that hashtag.

I discuss what the war was really about on episode 565 of The Brion McClanahan Show.