Nikki Haley-What was the cause of the Civil War

[*bengalfan74*]

(01-18-2024, 05:45 PM)Dill Wrote: Some further musings for anyone still interested in discussing the causes of the Civil War and a national politician's difficulty in answering questions about it.

Reading the above post got me to wondering "for whom" the cause of the Civil War has supposedly shifted, as well as whether, when and why?

First, irrespective of "cause," did most post-WW II Civil War historians think that slavery was the primary cause--the North trying to end it, the South trying to preserve it--until "early to mid '90s," when their consensus changed to "state rights" as a cause? Is that factually correct?  Or was there some other group able to shift the cause, and for whom--college students? The news consuming public? Public school teachers?

The above appears to say there is a group out there--"left-leaning academia"--whose "needs" required a shift in an existing consensus about the cause of the war.  It's not clear what those "needs" were though, or why a shift to "states rights" as a cause would satisfy them. Did this group need to think the Union would NOT go to war to "liberate non-whites"? 

But the North did go to war. So if not liberate non-whites, is their claim then that the North went to war for "states rights"? "Left-leaning academia" was large and powerful enough to change, what, the consensus of historians? Public discussions in the news or on the internet? Nikki Haley's views on the war? She did not seem to think slavery belonged in the discussion.

Also not clear for whom, around 2016, "slavery became the laser focus of the Civil War." That wasn't a "laser focus" during the early 90s when the great shift in explanatory cause occurred? From whom/where did that "laser focus" emanate? And how is that measured? Was it evidenced in books written, scholarly articles published, online forums, news commentary, government policy, or where?


According to The History Channel, about 620,000 Americans on both sides died during the war, but 258,000 of those deaths were Confederate (and exclusively white men). 
So it might be accurate to say that over 600,000 fighting over the question of slavery, but it is not accurate to say that number died TO END slavery. Remember one side was fighting to preserve it.
https://www.history.com/news/american-civil-war-deaths

Also wondering who or is the source for the "whole white people are evil and the US is irredeemably racist argument"? 

You hit on an important point here. If you could go back and conduct a poll on the cause of the Civil war in 1875, you would probably get a little different answer than what you would in 1910, 1950, 1995 and so on. Times change, the lens that whatever is being viewed through changes.

And just for the record I'm not trying to say the Civil war wasn't about slavery. Just that it's very hard for us today to put ourselves in the shoes of someone in 1860. 

On the Civil war deaths it's very hard to put a hard number on. I believe about 6,000 were KIA at Gettysburg but Confederate numbers are hard to pin down. Moreover, how many that were wounded died a month later? a year later? and so on. How many reported "missing" were just blown to bits? 

Many historians believe the 600,000 number is probably quite low.