re: #52 The Vicious Babushka

Megan McArdle’s @asymmetricinfo time line is a complete shit show right now. She is taking the position that “The Civil War was about self-determination (for white people who owned slaves) not ending slavery”

She actually has a point, which she put very poorly - “Self-determination”, indeed! The South seceded over slavery, specifically protecting and expanding it. They didn’t want anyone interfering with their ‘right’ to own black people. They went to war to split the Union.

The North went to war to preserve the Union. They didn’t go to war to free the slaves, by and large, and Lincoln, for all that he opposed slavery, expressed a willingness to allow it to continue if it kept the Union together.

So, the war wasn’t fought to free the slaves. It was fought to guarantee their enslavement, and that side lost.