Kevin's Watch

Not too sure if it was originally; my impression is that the Emancipation was given in order to revitalize the north and give it a cause to fight behind, after the war had already started. But there were huge problems in recruiting enough soldiers; correct me if I'm wrong, but I believe that it was the first time they used the draft (after paying bounties in cash stopped working).

I've never really been sold on the slavery = non important thing; the simple fact that the southern states were so focused on keeping slavery makes it a major issue in their secession.

Slavery was a single issue, one that would have collapsed in about 10 years anyway, and an issue in the North as well.

I don't have time to read the whole topic, at least not yet, but I'm a little wary of this. In terms of its collapse...slavery had been expected to "die" before the civil war even started, but cotton becoming a major cash crop of the south in turn revitalized the system. As far as it being in the north...is this addressing the slave states which stayed with the union and were (until the emancipation proclamation) allowed to keep their slaves?

Holsety wrote:I've never really been sold on the slavery = non important thing; the simple fact that the southern states were so focused on keeping slavery makes it a major issue in their secession.

I didn't say non-important.

But if they were so focused on keeping slavery, then why didn't they just accept Lincoln's offer? (And I think we should take it to the other thread really.)

--A

Av, have you ever read the Secession statements from each state that seceded?

Can't say I have. If you've got links, please post them in the thread I linked to on the previous page, I'd be most interested, and as I said, happy to revive the topic.

(And btw, I'm not saying it wasn't an issue...just that it wasn't the over-riding issue.)

(Say, danlo...should I move that thread into here?)

--A