The American Civil War and Slavery

The American civil war began this month in 1861 and ended this day in 1865 with the loss of nearly one million lives.

Most people if asked will say that this conflict was about the abolition of slavery. But this, just like much of history, including the so-called abolition of slavery in Great Britain and Saint William Wilberforce (see the blog below from 31/3/07 WW was a nasty Tory) is incorrect. Such misunderstanding is, of course, just what the ruling class then and now want. Before examining the war from a Socialist perspective, readers wishing to learn more about 'History as propaganda' and 'History as mystery' should click
http://www.worldsocialism.org/spgb/apr07/page14.html
and
http://www.worldsocialism.org/spgb/jul98/histmyst.html


"...If the abolition of slavery was an all important issue to the North, then why were Wendell Philips and William Lloyd Garrison mobbed in Boston, the centre of abolitionist ferment? Why was Lovejoy lynched in Illinois? Why was Douglass, friendly to the South and its institutions, elected to the Senate by the same State that started Lincoln on his road to fame?


Then too, the idea of opposition to slavery on moral grounds becomes ridiculous when one regards the low moral conscience of Northern industrialism. The was no revulsion at the horrible mills and mines where men, women and children toiled long hours for a pittance; at the miserable slums, unfit for human habitation in all the cities and towns; at the periodic crises which threw the workers on the streets to starve; at the universal blacklist for those who spoke of unionization.


Certainly it was not opposition to slavery on moral grounds that prompted Massachusetts, in the early 18th century, to abolish it. John Adams wrote: "that the real cause was the multiplication of labouring white people who would not suffer the rich to employ these sable rivals so much to their injury." And the fact that a committee appointed by the Massachusetts Council in 1706, recommended the abolition of slavery because "white servants were cheaper and more profitable than black slaves." Nor were Lincoln and his party, a century and a half later, concerned with the morals of slavery. In fact, the Emancipation Proclamation was issued as a war measure against the Rebels and did not apply to those slaves loyal to the Union. The Republican Party made quite plain the fact that it was not opposed to the continuation of slavery in the South provided it was not spread into the frontier areas in which the Northern industrialists wished to establish their own slave system - wage labour....


The American South, despite its slave labour, was basically a commodity society in which goods (including slaves) and services were produced for sale on the market with a view to profit. A more fitting designation for the system is Plantation Capitalism. Certainly the South fought to maintain the chattel status of its Negroes, but mainly because this labour was vital to its economy [one largely based on the cultivation and ginning of cotton] and because its very system was falling apart largely as a result of Congressional laws which favoured Northern interests and made chattel slave labour too costly. The moral justification for slavery was naturally provided by the Southern churches for the benefit of their aristocratic "partners."


It was largely because of the law against the importation of slaves and the consequent need of breeding these "vocal tools" that a field hand who in 1808 sold for 150 dollars, brought from two to four thousand dollars in 1860. The control of Congress by the North resulted in high tariffs on imported manufactured goods which interfered with the important trade of Southern raw cotton for English textiles. The development of the Northern seaports and railways also brought about a loss of trade to the South from the Western agricultural regions - long ship hauls down the Mississippi to the Port of New Orleans became unnecessary. And the South, which desperately needed new land to replace that used up by their wasteful one-crop system, was losing out in its bid to bring in frontier areas as slave states.


As its losing economic war with the North and its internal contradictions progressed, the beneficiaries of the Southern plantation system became fewer, their holdings ever larger. In 1860 only about one-half million of a population of 9 million Southern whites are reckoned to have made any profit from chattel slavery, of which a mere 100,000 were the actual ruling class. In this crumbling fabric of the South, the problems confronting the 10,000 was how to maintain dominance under universal white suffrage. Support came from the professional class and the clergy with their one or two personal slaves. Also from the poor, degraded "white trash" who squatted on the poorest land and fiercely defended the institution of chattel slavery which provided another economic group over whom they could vaunt their "superiority." As an added bonus, there was the lift to their spirits to be had by identifying themselves with the Southern aristocrats....


The elections of 1860 tore any remnants of control of the national government from the hands of the Southern rulers. Secession became necessary. The plantation capitalists knew that their social system could never prosper with a government they could not control. They had no more need for the North, since their system was barred by soil and climate from expanding in that direction. With a government they could control, expansion to the south could proceed,in harmony with the grand visions of the Southern "Manifest Destinators." There was Mexico to be conquered, Central America, Cuba, and even the vast continent of South America - all offering vast areas of land for the smooth operation of their economy. Their backs to the wall, they had nothing to lose, so they took the plunge and the hot war began..."


During the ensuing slaughter conscription was introduced for the first time in American history. But those rich enough to part with $300 could become legal dodgers. Some of the rich became even more so: J.P Morgan made a fortune by selling thousands of previously condemned rifles to the War Department. Business as usual. This was true after the war too. "Those who returned to the industries found a new foe, warlike and pitiless, but in industrial rather than military warfare. These were the "captains" of industry - the Fricks, Carnegies, Vanderbilts, Rockerfelllers, Hills, Huntingtons, Flagers and, of course, the redoubtable J.P.Morgan. With the 70's came the business panics and the great strikes. In the Pennslyvania coal fields a bloody war raged between the owners and the Molly Maguires (a secret society of rebellious workers). Alan Pinkerton, a spy of Lincoln's, now became the leading industrial spy and the strike breaker in the land. By worming his way into the inner circle of the society, he was instrumental in bringing about the exposure of the Molly Maguires. Ten of their members were hanged and many more sent to prison, bringing to an inglorious end the careers of some of the former heroes of the Union Army. Many more of the veterans were to witness the same generals who had led them to "victory" now march upon them with their former brothers-in-arms, to shoot, kill and jail them. It was a rude awakening for and was to teach them that the war was not fought for them, as they had thought, but to build an economic system that would enrich a handful." (The War Between the States, Socialist Standard, April 1961).

RS