THE AMERICAN FIRETEAM: Rebel with a Cause

I turned the video off when he said the civil war was about slavery.

Unfortunately, with that statement the “Rebel with a Cause” is only parroting what government schools want the population to believe in order to justify the North’s war on the Southern states. Keep in mind, the Northern states had at the time had a myriad of Black Codes and institutional discrimination, as well as, slaves.

As Tocqueville wrote in Democracy in America, “the prejudice of race appears to be stronger in the states that have abolished slavery then in those were it still exist: and nowhere is it so intolerant as in those states were servitude has never been known.” Tocqueville pointed out that in the North, if laws did not discriminate against blacks in virtually every area of their existence, “popular prejudices” did. Public opinion “did not permit” blacks to legally marry, vote, or utilize the judicial system.

Understanding the general attitudes of most Northerners at the time towards blacks it is very, very doubtful that an abhorrence of slavery would have been a sufficient motivation for hundreds of thousands of Northern men to march off to war to give their lives on the bloody battle fields.

Yes, the North won the war of Northern aggression, so they ensured what was taught in government schools. But is time to stop parroting that the war was about slavery and that the north was virtuous.

The mercantilist / Whigs in the north wanted the war for economic and financial reasons but not to abolish slavery. Even Lincoln stated over and over in his speeches that the war was not about abolishing slavery. Slavery was ending and given time it would have ended the states just as it was ending in other western countries. The industrial revolution and new technology made the plantation methods of agriculture obsolete primarily because it was less efficient than new modern methods.

One final criticism, the “Rebel with a Cause” vocabulary is more suited to a back alley thug, then it is for a “Patriot” who is attempting to influence other patriots. I have noticed that the south seems to produce patriot warriors that also speak like gentlemen. Profanity may be required at times, but it is not required for videos that ladies and children may watch. This may seem to be old school, but manners and vocabulary are elements that define the character of the person. Regards.