[quote=briansd1]
It seems to me like many Americans now are so ashamed of the history of slavery that they want to argue that it was not about slavery but about states rights.[/quote]
Brian: It doesn’t have anything to do with being ashamed of slavery. It has to do with the causes (note the plural) of the war, of which slavery was only one (but NOT the most important one).
And, yeah, State’s Rights were definitely in there (which, if you read “For Cause and Comrades”, you’ll see). Many Northern soldiers were as racist as their Southern counterparts, and, for this reason, the anti-slavery rationale for the war was played down by Union Army officers. While there were all-black units on the Union side, there were no black officers (the units were commanded by white officers) and most were not used in any meaningful fashion (with the exception of the 54th Massachusetts (seen in the movie “Glory”), which saw considerable action before being slaughtered in a pointless assault on an impregnable Southern citadel, Fort Wagner).
