re: #115 sattv4u2

re: #102 goddessoftheclassroom

It (the war) was more of a “STATES RIGHTS” issue than a SLAVERY issue. It just so happened that slavery was one of the “rights” some of the states wanted to protect

When I was in high school, my class got into a discussion on how the Civil War could have been avoided if the government had just freed the slaves to start with.

I said, “Right or wrong, slaves were defined as property, The Constitution prohibits the government from confiscating property without paying for it. The Emancipation Proclamation only applied to Union states, so it didn’t free any slaves until the South surrendered.”

I could never decide whether my history teacher loved or loathed me.