Just to be clear

Oculus Spirit [81061]

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Slavery was the root of it, but it was far from the only

Sep 9, 2020, 12:02 PM [ in reply to Less than 10% of the South owned slaves but there would ]

reason.

The north was pretty aggressive with taxation, and wanted to ban slavery in the western states the south wanted to move into. The pressure to end slavery was part of the excessive taxation. The south (collectively) felt as if the government wanted to control their politics and future economic plans. And to an extent, that was true.

Slavery was certainly the vehicle, but perceived (and real) political and economic control was the reason.

As you said, basically slave ownership was only for the rich. The average southerner simply couldn't afford slaves; many poor land owner farmers didn't want nor need them. But obviously, the average man felt strong enough about the attempted economic and political pressures being placed by the US Government (the north) they'd go to war about it, many times against their own family. As bad as blacks have been treated before and since then, simple logic tells me that the folks who were treating blacks as property (even if they themselves couldn't afford a slave) weren't willing to die for them.

There are a lot of papers and studies out there about the ruling class elite of the south who owned slaves and saw slavery as the way to grow their fortune, but they were definitely in the minority. However, there's not much written about the majority of "plain folks" who didn't own slaves, and had more in common with the slave's lifestyle than the ruling elite.

Here are a couple articles that are interesting in that regard

https://networks.h-net.org/node/11465/discussions/4297558/poor-whites-antebellum-us-south-topical-guide

https://jacobinmag.com/2019/08/poor-whites-have-been-written-out-of-history-for-a-very-political-reason

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Violent protest!

Is this "The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly"? I see the bridge.***

Where’s the grave with the gold?***

No, see, that was different.***

Were the civil war only about slavery, that would be correct

Here we go.....***

Less than 10% of the South owned slaves but there would

Regional pride, blind loyalty, and fooled by folks in charge

Slavery was the root of it, but it was far from the only

True. There were other issues in play, but none so

Plus slavery meant poor whites weren't the lowest rung on

actually...

Worse? I'm not sure I'd say that.

I don't understand why people think this is a "narrative"

I think this is a bit ingenuous.

since we are stretching on our analogies...

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