Here's what McPherson has to say about the issue I mentioned. He does discuss the role of slavery in the Civil War.
http://voices.washingtonpost.com/answer-sheet/history/mcpherson-on-slavery-and-virgi.html -- McPherson on slavery and Virginia's governor Events have led me to ask renowned Civil War expert James McPherson for the second time in a few weeks for help in explaining whats right and whats wrong. This time I asked him to tell me how historically accurate Virginia Gov. Robert F. McDonnell was when he declared that April will be Confederate History Month in Virginia, did not include a reference to slavery in his proclamation and then said he left out the subject because "there were any number of aspects to that conflict between the states. Obviously, it involved slavery. It involved other issues. But I focused on the ones I thought were most significant for Virginia." The governor late in the day issued an apology for not mentioning slavery in his initial announcement. This time he said in a statement, "The abomination of slavery divided our nation, deprived people of their God-given inalienable rights, and led to the Civil War. Slavery was an evil, vicious and inhumane practice which degraded human beings to property, and it has left a stain on the soul of this state and nation." Obviously somebody gave the governor a history lesson in a hurry. McPherson, a Princeton University professor and author of numerous Civil War books including the award-winning Battle Cry of Freedom, said that McDonnell initially had it wrong when he indicated that slavery was not most significant for Virginia as an issue during the Civil War period. Heres what McPherson said in an email before the apology was issued: With respect to the governors statement that "Obviously it involved slavery. It involved other issues. But I focused on the ones I thought were most significant for Virginia," I suppose his statement is accurate in a literal sense. The war did involve slavery, and it did involve other issues, and I am sure that his statement focused on what he thinks are most significant for Virginia--whether they really were or not. What is misleading about the statement is that slavery was at the core of the events that provoked the secession of the first seven states from December 1860 to February 1861. If it had not been for the election of an antislavery party to the presidency, there would have been no secession, no firing on Fort Sumter, and no secession by the other four states (including Virginia) that followed the first seven out after Fort Sumter. The vote in favor of secession at the Virginia convention on April 17, 1861, was 88 to 55. Most of the anti-secession votes came from the Shenandoah Valley and from the mountainous counties of western Virginia (which eventually became West Virginia), where slavery was of less importance than in the Piedmont and Tidewater regions that voted strongly for secession, and where slavery was a crucial part of the socioeconomic order. In fact, there was a pretty direct correlation between the percentage of slaves and slaveholders in a given district and its support for secession. -- On Thu, Apr 8, 2010 at 10:04 AM, Ian Skinner <[email protected]> wrote: > > On 4/8/2010 6:58 AM, Scott Stroz wrote: >> I may be wrong, but I thought that slavery did nto become an issue in >> the Civil War until after the Emancipation Proclamation - which, if >> memory serves me correctly - only freed the slaves in the states that >> had seceded. >> > > Slavery was not a 'cause' of the war. But it was a large auxiliary factor. > The overall reason for the states that succeeded was over States rights > versus Federal rights. But the main right being debated at the time, > was the right to allow slavery or not. > > > > ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~| Want to reach the ColdFusion community with something they want? Let them know on the House of Fusion mailing lists Archive: http://www.houseoffusion.com/groups/cf-community/message.cfm/messageid:315279 Subscription: http://www.houseoffusion.com/groups/cf-community/subscribe.cfm Unsubscribe: http://www.houseoffusion.com/groups/cf-community/unsubscribe.cfm
