I grew up in Northern Virginia, but I did not enter the Virginian public school system until middle school. Upon entering I soon found out that framing the civil war as fought over slavery is a common misconception and that the true nature of the war revolved around states rights. It was often argued by my teachers that the north had a booming strong economy and abolishing slavery was a tactic to help cripple the agriculturally based southern economy and create dependence on the north.

I feel like children are taught not to question the information they receive in class and accept it as truth. The question I have though is does every history teacher in Virginia believe the bias towards the south they teach concerning the Civil War?

To some degree I’ve been swayed by what I’ve been taught in school. I do think the idea of waging such a dividing and bloody war was not simply to end slavery. I think it’s highly likely that fighting to end slavery may have been used as northern propaganda to recruit an army. Using moral purpose is effective in raising a driven and righteous army. It happened during World War II. I won’t say I know my facts spot on, but I’m pretty sure the U.S. weapons and supplies to both England and Germany prior to engagement in the war. The U.S. was very steadfast in its policy of neutrality and isolationism, but once entered into the war recruitment was all about moral duty and patriotism.

But back to topic. Is there any one reason for war? The Civil War was probably fought over a number of reasons. There is probably truth to states rights and slavery as causes. Can it not also be said that the acceptable reasons for war were preached by the politicians of the time while the real reasons remained hidden? I’m alluding to today’s war on terror that has acquired beaucoup bucks for certain businesses. History is written by the victors, and can surely be distorted by those who wrote it and the passing of time and interpretation.