The civil war period was a tumultuous time in the history of the United States. Part of the nation wanted to end the blemish of slavery that had tainted the image of an otherwise clean nation for a long time while another side; the south was out to protect the means they thought was the best to catch up with the more economically developed north. The slaves were a source of labor in the cotton plantations of the south and ending slavery meant an end to free labor. In the middle of this posturing between the pro-slavery South and the anti-slavery north was a president; Abraham Lincoln, who believed that slavery was no longer a question of economics but a moral concern. He was tired of being called a pretender who admonished small nations in Asia, Africa and Latin America that mistreated their people when he had failed to stop the inhuman treatment of African Americans in the United States. Disagreements between the two sides became strong till southern leaders decided that they had to leave the union; a move that failed after they lost the civil war. Had I been a politician from the south at that time, I would have advocated for the south to remain in the union. Here are the reasons:
To begin with, the south had no moral reasons for moving out of the union. The United States was founded on the grounds of freedom. The founding fathers went against the royal family of England because they believed that every human being had to be free. This was clearly captured in the founding documents such as the declaration of independence. Therefore the insistence of southern leaders to continue enslaving and mistreating other human beings made no sense at all. It was a display of hypocrisy of the highest order and therefore an affront on the dignity of the nation.
Secondly, the south still needed the north for quick economic development. The northern part of the union had made more economic progress with established industries and modern commercial centers while the south lagged behind with a population of mostly heavily mistreated and uneducated black slaves and equally uneducated and racist white slavemasters.The feuds between these slave masters and the slaves who kept on rioting and rebelling from time to time made progress difficult. With such conditions, seceding from the union would have meant a long time spent in conflict and a long period of poverty.
Thirdly, there was a substantial number of southern whites who never wanted the south to break away from the union. It is always important that leaders listen to what the people are saying before making any decision. The secession decision was made mostly by the wealthy slave-owning politicians and the illiterate whites who thought that they had a right to keep slaves. The educated middle-class whites wanted nothing to do with slaves and they saw no reason for breaking away from the union if the proponents of the idea were projecting slavery as their only reason. As a politician from the south, I would have therefore chosen to listen to the voices of those who never wanted to move out of the union. The civil war and the intended secession made many think that all southern whites were racists; something that is not true (Adam,et.al.,508-511).
The fourth reason as to why I would not have supported secession is the issue of legacy. Some things are bound to happen in this life and this world. Had the south managed to secede from the union, slavery would have continued for some time but not forever. The slave numbers were close to the white population in the south (Crocker 2006, 162). Thus they would have gotten freedom at some point, and known that the reason why the south is not part of the union, is that southern leaders wanted to continue enslaving them (Spanierman, 2004. 250-251). This would have been a bad legacy that I would not have wanted to be part of. Today, whites in the United States feel guilty for what our grandfathers were doing to the grandfathers of some of our classmates. The nation may be healing but the stain will for a long time haunt the nation. Pictures of a black man being hung or a Jew being stoned are not a pretty sight when our teachers show them to us during history lessons. I hide my face from my African American desk mate. Therefore secession would have been even worse
In conclusion, I would not have supported the secession of the south from the union. The reasons include the absence of a moral reason, the need for economic support from the more developed north, some southerners wanting to be part of the union, and the issue of a bad legacy that I would not have wanted to be part of.
References
Adam A. Powell et al.2005. Inequality as Ingroup Privilege or Outgroup Disadvantage: The Impact of Group Focus on Collective Guilt and Interracial Attitudes. Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin. 31(4):508-521.
Crocker III.2006. Don’t Tread on Me. New York: Crown Forum.
Spanierman,Lisa.2004. Psychosocial Costs of Racism to Whites . Journal of Counseling Psychology. 51(2):249-262.