Nikki Haley has faced some unfair criticism for her response to the question about whether the Civil War was about slavery. Her answer was awkward and unclear, opening her up to attacks and prompting her to do a mea culpa, backtracking on her response and making it clear that yes, it was about slavery.
The problem is that it is only partly true that the Civil War was about slavery. It certainly was for the Southern slave states. They seceded to preserve their “property rights” to own human beings. But there were areas in the South that did not want any part of that. For instance, West Virginia became a state after breaking away from the rest of Virginia when the Old Dominion left the union. Eastern Tennessee was pro-union. Neither of those areas were big slave-holding areas. And there were other areas. Among many Confederate soldiers it became known as a rich man’s war and a poor man’s fight because only the rich, and, to an extent, the middle class, could afford to own slaves.
Things were not so clear in the North. In the Free States, some people would fight to end slavery while others would not. What they would fight for is preserving the Union.
Doubt that? Look at what Abraham Lincoln said and did. He said if he could preserve the Union by freeing all the slaves, he would; if he could preserve the union by allowing slavery to exist, he would. He feared that making the war about slavery would mean massive desertion of federal volunteers.
The Emancipation Proclamation was issued as a war measure attacking the South’s economic base. It was announced September 22, 1962, and would take effect January 1, 1863, if the rebellious states did not return to the union. It also did not apply to the slave states that did not secede—Delaware, Maryland, West Virginia, Kentucky, and Missouri. It also did not apply to areas of Confederate states under Union control.
Ultimately, the Proclamation did make the war about slavery, leading to the 13th Amendment that ended slavery in the United States. About 200,000 African Americans ultimately fought in Union uniforms.
So was the Civil War about slavery? Yes, for the South. Sort of for the North when it began.
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