Have you ever heard someone say, “The Civil War wasn’t about slavery, it was about states’ rights”?
During my time in white, evangelical and Reformed Christian circles, I often heard statements to that effect.
This assertion was an attempt to deflect attention away from race-based chattel slavery as the primary issue that split the nation and led to its bloodiest war.
They typically did not deny that slavery was part of the issue, but they tried to lump slavery in as just one of many causes—the most import of which was the urgent anxiety of Confederates about the federal government “meddling” in state-level matters.
Of course, what upset Confederates the most was the federal government having the audacity to weigh in on the practice of slavery.
We were talking about the Civil War and its causes in my African American History class at Simmons College of Kentucky.
This seemingly straightforward topic gets muddled by attempts to rewrite history and make the Civil War about something other than the perpetuation of race-based chattel slavery.
While other causes can be cited, the fate of an institution of labor exploitation based on race was the central concern.
But as I told my students, you don’t have to take my word for it. #HistoryHasTheReceipts
We examined Alexander Stephens’ famous “Cornerstone Speech” as a primary source.
Stephens was the vice president of the Confederate States of America, and his address on March 21, 1861, he plainly stated the ethos of the rebellious group.
[The equality of the races] was an error. It was a sandy foundation, and the government built upon it fell when the "storm came and the wind blew."
Our new government is founded upon exactly the opposite idea; its foundations are laid, its cornerstone rests, upon the great truth that the negro is not equal to the white man; that slavery subordination to the superior race is his natural and normal condition. This, our new government, is the first, in the history of the world, based upon this great physical, philosophical, and moral truth.
After I shared this speech and this quote with my students, we had an animated discussion about the white supremacy at the heart of Stephens’ statement and the Confederacy itself.
My students were shook, shocked and appalled at how loudly wrong Stephens and his allies were. And it’s personal. This is how a man like him felt about people like them.
It hits different when you’re not only reading about racism in history but you are the subject of it.
Pursuant to the repeated suggestions of my colleagues, I recorded a reel about the class for social media and posted it.
I post daily on various platforms from Twitter (I’ll always call it that) to Facebook, to YouTube, and even LinkedIn. But my preferred platform these days is Instagram (follow HERE!).
There is no pleasing the algorithm. It is a cruel and capricious overlord. Just when you think you’ve figured out the formula to appease it, the terms and conditions change and render you almost invisible online.
But occasionally, you can stumble upon a combination of words, images, and content that pleases the algorithm. When this happens, you go viral.
That’s what happened on October 13, 2023 when I recorded a video about the core cause of the Civil War and titled it “This quote had my students SHOOK!”
But I think a lot of people didn’t understand what I meant by “shook.”
So many comments on the Instagram post basically said, “Why were they shook? They shouldn’t be surprised by racism” or “What? They didn’t know this already? I’ve known about the real cause of the Civil War for years.”
After reading statements like this for the past several months, I was fed up. I posted the following comment to further explain.
Maybe I wasn’t clear about why my students were “shook.”
The blatant, unabashed, full-throated expression of racism and white supremacy that Stephens expressed in his “Cornerstone” speech was bracing. Even in today’s climate of increasing brazenness, the unapologetic racism expressed by this Confederate about the Confederacy is jarring.
“Shook” does not necessarily mean no one knew that the Civil War was about slavery or they hadn’t been taught that before.
And even if they hadn’t known, that’s a knock on adults and the system of education we set up, not on the students.
So let’s be careful in our statements that have a negative subtext about the learners.
Congrats if you’ve known this (specifically Stephens’ speech and its significance) for a long time. Also remember there’s still a lot you don’t know about history that others already do.
Finally, many folks, even today, downplay or dilute the role slavery played in the Civil War.
They say “states’ rights” instead of slavery to soften the reality that the Confederates were fighting to keep it.
In a way the Civil War was about states’ rights…the supposed right of states to maintain a legal system of race-based chattel slavery.
The urge to obfuscate the racism and white supremacy inherent in the existence and actions of the Confederacy is why I created a feel like this.
Thanks for reading and sharing.
Check out my New York Times bestselling book “The Color of Compromise” for more of my research on the history of racism.
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This persistent efforts to evade responsibility and sanitize their version of history is disappointing. Above all, it is intellectually dishonest and insulting to the intelligence of anyone who can plainly read history.
It makes impossible to regard people, especially Christians, who want to stand by this erroneous interpretation of history with any level of respect.
Ephesians 5:11 comes to mind, “Have nothing to do with the fruitless deeds of darkness, but rather expose them.”
I will never be able to know, deeply in my being, how your students feel to hear these blatant expressions of white supremacy. I can only do a bit of bridging when, for instance, I read things like certain Church Fathers explicate the inherent inferiority of women in relation to being made in the image of God.
In my ongoing study of the history of white supremacy, though, I do come across many horrifying instances of enacted, legal, theological, political, literary, journalistic and artistic expressions of Black inferiority and degradation. Each and every time it does “shake”; I often have to close the book, article, etc. for a time before proceeding. The devaluation and contempt expressed, in whatever form, is an affront to Jesus Christ, Who created all things “and apart from [whom] not one thing was created that has been created.” [John 1:3]
I am so very glad that your students are learning these hard realities from you, and there is a safe place for them to learn and be in pain at the same time, though I have sorrow for the pain. I have seen that pain in close friends over most of my life (I’m 64); I can attest to the anguish even though I can’t know it like they do. But the truth is important; may God provide many safe teachers, and protect them in this work.