Northern Attack on the South

¶ … Northern attack on the South during the United States Civil War were based in the desire to rid the nation of slavery because it was immoral and inhumane. While slavery abolishment was a needed and appropriate byproduct of the Civil War it was not the foundation for its creation. The true reason the North wanted to fight against the South was to promote capitalism and to support wage slavery instead.

Bast, 2001. Capitalism and Slavery (http://www.heartland.org/Article.cfm?artId=183)

There are many organizations and classrooms that teach the idea that slavery was caused by capitalism. This has been a popular notion for many years even though when held against logical discussion it does not maintain its credibility.

Throughout world history slavery has occurred and when slaves were freed many of them aspired to own slaves and did so. This undermines the idea that slavery was abolished because of the inhumane way that it treated people, though the fact remains that it is an inhumane practice.

Slavery in the U.S. was based on the myth of African-American racial inferiority, reinforced in the South by religious beliefs and the leading civil and civic institutions of the day. Orlando Patterson, in his 1998 book Rituals of Blood: Consequences of Slavery in Two American Centuries, describes the Ku Klux Klan in the early twentieth century as: a highly organized and extremely successful cult that counted thousands of ministers of religion among its membership, and an even higher proportion in its leadership."

Slavery actually began to lose favor in the United States as capitalism began to gain popularity. In the Northern part of the country capitalism was taking hold and thousands of workers found themselves employed for wages that would barely cover the basic needs of survival for their families.

During his presidency, Abraham Lincoln, who has been championed as a hero for ending slavery, actually made statements publicly that he was interested in preserving the union, and had no interest in ending slavery.