this post was submitted on 29 Nov 2023
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There's a problem with this argument.
Confederate states actually controlled the federal government prior to their succession, and strongly opposed states' rights to ignore federal laws like the Escaped Slaves act. Wisconsin and Vermont had judges and legislators who declared any individual who reached their borders to be free.
Abraham Lincoln had declared opposition to slavery, but said that he would not impose federal law on the states, and had not even threatened to free slaves before the war began.
So while the Civil War did have a lot to do with states' rights, the Confederates were opposed to them and the Union supported them. This led to the secession, which sort of flipped the script, because then it was Confederate states demanding the right to leave the Union, and the Union saying "no" to that particular demand. It had very little to do with telling Southern States that they could not keep slaves, although there is plenty of reason to expect that it would have gone in that direction without the Civil War. Abolitionists were gaining ground, and Lincoln was morally opposed to it, so it the Confederate states had a reasonable expectation that they would eventually be forced to end slavery, but it hadn't happened before the start of the war.
To be sure, the Confederacy was a traitorous band of anti-American bigots seeking to create a tyrannical ethnostate of christofascists (fuck, why does that sound familiar?). However, in this case, the answer to Velma's question in this case is not "keep slaves" but is instead "secede."
And why did they want to secede ?
I answered that question. They wanted to secede because the federal government wasn't enforcing federal law, specifically the escaped slaves act. States were using their own courts and their own legislatures to free slaves, and the federal government was not willing to override states' rights. The states' right to own slaves was not in jeopardy at that time. The only states' right that the secessionists wanted to avail themselves of was the right to secede, which they didn't actually have.
The fact that the confederates originally wanted a federal right to own slaves is little different from them wanting states' rights to own slaves. The fact that they changed from one argument to an incompatible one, and both were about the right to own slaves is just further proof that the arguments are simply disingenuous pretext. The civil war was about the right to own slaves.
The Confederate states had a federal law enshrining slavery. They had states' rights to own slaves. At no point prior to secession did the federal government try to take a state's rights to own slave or pass federal legislation abolishing slavery. They didn't change arguments, slavery was always the priority, it was just opposing states' rights while states were freeing slaves while the federal government was supposed to try to stop them.
None of this makes the picture above wrong.
What's Daphne's response supposed to be?
I'm sorry. I see you're point. She should be saying "secede because the federal government won't enforce slavery." Very different, and the picture above is totally wrong.
No worries, I could have been clearer and more direct, and there are enough people who want to defend the Confederacy on the internet that it's a reflexive action to argue with anyone who seems to be pushing "alternative history." So I can't really blame you for questioning me. Stay vigilant, bigots don't fight fair.
Dude, I was just following this whole argument being like, he hasn't said anything wrong... Yet....
Thanks for not being a bigot!
I get that. This is a subject where typically, anyone trying to discuss the "nuance" is really just an apologist trying to veil their bigotry.