RE: [DL] Freeing the Slaves

["Mark Chiddicks" <Mark.Chiddicks@descisys.com>]

Of course the common soldier did not take up arms to defend slavery, but they didn't take up arms to defend a principle either. They took up arms to defend their homes when the Union invaded.

Had slavery not existed in the South there would have been no argument, and thus no secession and thus no war. Wars are started by politicians and the politicians certainly DID care about slavery!

The only right that the Union government was threatening to take away from the Southern states was the right to hold slaves, thus slavery was the cause of the war.

-----Original Message-----
From: Mr. Christopher McGlothlin, M.Ed. [mailto:sosentinel@adelphia.net]
Sent: Thursday, 1 August 2002 5:07 p.m.
To: deadlands@gamerz.net
Subject: RE: [DL] Freeing the Slaves


At 12:38 AM 8/1/2002, Mr. Mark Chiddicks wrote:
>If the Confederate government freed the slaves except in the direst need 
>they would be seen as betraying their own people. Whatever southerners say 
>about the war being fought over States Rights we all know that the Right 
>that they were talkinga bout was the right to hold slaves!

         No, and any thorough reading of history (especially the 
first-person history) puts this to the lie. Slavery mattered to the less 
than 10% of Southerners who owned slaves; the rest were concerened with 
other issues, primarily defending their homes and families.
         Read Pulitzer Prize-winning historian James M. McPherson's 
authoritative _For Cause and Comrades_. McPherson's made a career burying 
the South, and even he agrees that very few Southerners were motivated to 
take up arms to defend slavery. The book will open any reader's eyes.

Deo Vindice,
Mr. Christopher L. McGlothlin, M.Ed.

Educator & Freelance RPG Writer
Member, Academy of Adventure Gaming Arts & Design
Moderator of the New Gamers Order Listserver

"Look upon me! I'll show you the life of the mind!"
--Charlie Meadows (John Goodman), _Barton Fink_


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