Quote:
Originally Posted by GenuineRisk
Those tariffs had been cut back drastically by the 1850s and the South had a huge hand in the shaping of the very reduced 1857 tariff law, which was then followed by an economic panic. Slavery was the #1 reason for the South's decision to secede. Certainly, other issues contributed (including Lincoln's election), but the central cause was about whether the nation would continue to allow a portion of that nation to create wealth on the backs of enslaved human beings.
Trivia- one of my ancestors, Abraham Op den Graef, was a signatory on the first public petition against slavery in the colonies, in 1680 (in Pennsylvania).
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yeah, they seceded over tariffs...
calhoun even tried nullification over that business. but the south didn't care if the tariffs made sense, they just cared about THEM, not the country as a whole. boy, that sounds familiar.
i'd suggest anyone unsure or trying to make secession and war about anything other than the slavery issue to read 'the great compromise', and also' fall of the house of dixie'.
and james mcphersons books on the subject, 'battle cry of freedom', and 'civil war and reconstruction'.
had their been no slavery, there'd have been no war. but the souths economy had been built and sustained solely thru owning human beings. they never went beyond that into more modern practices of farming and agriculture. and the economy in the south was also impacted because most immigration occurred north and west, because there was no opportunity for most folks in the south, as they had to compete with slavery.
also, the south didn't want to just expand westward, demanding to have slave states not just in cali (or, they let's split it), but they wanted to expand into nevada, new mexico...
and south. into mexico, south america, cuba. they paid money for filibusterers to try to take over cuba...crazy stuff!
the oxford american history series is really good, that first mcpherson book is part of it.