Statistical tables can’t compete with harrowing narratives of runaway slaves. Perhaps that’s why economic history isn’t taught in our schools.
Gee Sherm if the South wasn’t contributing an enormous amount of revenue to the North then why would Lincoln go to war to keep an albatross around his neck? Why not let that pack ofilliterate, impoverished dirt farmers and their slaves go and good riddance?
As you prolly already know its because 60% of all the exports of the United States at that time was southern cotton. Without it the Northern economy would have collapsed. All that cotton being shipped out of NY instead of Savannah or Charleston. About 40 cents out of every dollar going to the North.
Its always about the money Sherm. It was about the money then and its about the money now. Money and political machinations. It will always be about the money.
Lincoln didn’t care about the slaves until his approval rating was in Obama territory then he needed an issue to gin up support for the flagging war. Bingo slavery. Thats why the Emancipation Proclamation didn’t free the northern slaves only the confederate slaves. Political machinations.
Nobody cared about slavery in 1861. Nobody wanted to go to war over slavery. It was about the cotton tariff,levy, tax or whatever you want to call it. I call it a tax.
Tariff: a tax or duty to be paid on a particular class of imports or exports.
The Civil War festered for 30 years before the first shot was fired and it was not over slavery. It was over money.
We missed you yesterday at the big Robert E. Lee celebration down in Milledgeville. :-)
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Great post!
How do you explain the Declarations of Secession? They said it was about slavery.
tariffs are paid on imports, not exports. There was no “export” tax on cotton. Congress did pass a cotton tax law in July 1861, by that time war had already started