Reply #40: Sigh... they DID secede because of states rights.

[Kalyke]

Now hear me out.

Yes: the truth is that the Powers-That-Be - the very wealthy who owned slaves - obviously did not want to give up their prosperous lifestyles by having to pay farmhands actual money; however, the vast majority of Southerners who fought in the war were not rich and did not own slaves.

Why would these poor people fight in a war that held no importance for them?

Because they were told by virtue of the wealthy-owned media that the issue was over states rights. They were told by virtue of the wealthy-owned media that the people of the North were anti-Constitutional scalawags who were being sent to the South to pollute the land with their industrial ways (well - that actually turned out to be so, but, oh, you get my drift). They were told by virtue of the wealthy-owned media that their way of life was being threatened and they must act NOW (sounds like the Wall Street bail out, doesn't it?)

So - yes, I would argue with James Loewen about his assumptions. He may be correct in that, in reality, the Civil War wasn't fought over states rights, but, the reality in the minds of many a poor Southern soldier, was that, yes, it was fought over states rights. It's not that attitude is "heavy" in the South - it's that it is what our great- and great-great grandfathers told us because that is what they believed, pure and simple.

FWIW, THIS same type of propaganda is the very same reason Republicans have been able to control the South. Never mind that most Southerners are very poor and that Republican politics favor the very wealthy - just as they did in the late 1800s. The fact is that the chasm between rich and poor in the South is greater than in the North, making it easier for the wealthy elite to brainwash the simple (under-educated) poor. It's that way today. We have fewer educated middle class willing to listen outside the Republican propaganda box and spread that word to our working poor comrades. Hell, we just have fewer educated middle classers.