Racist Fear of Black Men was on the Minds of Confederate Soldiers
When someone tries to dismiss slavery as the cause of the Civil War, they are absolutely wrong. Various excuses are used that include such phony arguments such as “States’ Rights, Northern aggression, Yankee invasions, most whites did not own slaves,” and other absurd reasons that can easily be refuted. The one major thing left out is the propaganda equation is the power of white supremacy. White supremacy placed in the minds of poor whites that if slavery were abolished their “manhood” would be diminished. White racist philosophy held that free Black men would go on rampages and rape white women and destroy their family structure. White men would lose their ability to control the bodies of white women without slavery, and this would be reason enough for brainwashed Confederate soldiers to believe that even though they owned no slaves they had a duty to protect slavery. One can find these ideas in the minds of Confederate soldiers by simply reading their campfire newspapers, done at the rank-and-file level and letters to relatives and loved ones.
A Georgia regimental newspaper, developed by enlisted men and not officers, called the “The Spirit of 1861,” called those that opposed slavery “Black hearted abolitionists.” Many of those whites who owned no slaves saw slavery as worth fighting for to protect the “chastity” of white women from the advances of Black men. White liberty was always in the minds of racialized whites and the mark of freedom in this country was the fact that slavery was a reinforcement for white supremacy. Slavery held up white superiority by giving the average Confederate soldier a reason to protect slavery with false idea of white supremacy. Slavery was an institution to be protected, even by those who could never afford to purchase slaves, for it held up the idea of white superiority, survival of the white family, protection of white women, the social order of slavery, and their idea that freedom was based on skin color.
Personal protection was tied to slavery as the continuance of slavery allowed even poor whites to feel superior. White liberty was always a problem from the very beginnings of the United States. The idea that the American Revolution was fought to preserve white superiority was the idea that made whites who owned no slaves fight to protect slavery even though it was against their self-interest. Confederate self-interest was the acceptance that white superiority was more important than owning slaves. The class division between wealthy slave owners and poor whites was done away with by the power of racism to blunt the idea that the average Confederate grunt was fighting for the rich slave owners. There were revolts by whites against the Confederacy in Mississippi, but the idea that one could become rich by owning slaves, and hence white supremacy protected, was the powerhouse ideology that forced thousands of Confederate soldiers to die for a worthless cause.
The idea that the Civil War was not about slavery is purposeful fabrication as its best. Threats to slavery, even if minor, was viewed was looked at as an assault against white supremacy and white women. Without slavey, fear of rebellions against whites was always being exaggerated by southern newspapers. When slaves did revolt as in the German Coast uprising, Nat Turners’ rebellion, and many other slave revolts, fear of slavery ending was even more of an issue as it suggested rape of white women. Put the liars to rest—the Civil War was more about slavery than anything else.
