Fact number one: The South was fighting for its independence from the federal government in Washington with every intention of establishing a new nation. The men who led the South to do this believed that slavery was not morally wrong. They strongly believed in the superiority of the white race. Most Southern Whites believed that slavery was perfectly compatable with Christianity. The Southern Baptist Convention was formed in the 1840s because the old Trienial Convention adopted a policy against commisioning slaveholders as missionaries.
Fact number two: Abraham Lincoln went to war to preserve the Union, not to abolish slavery. The North benefitted from slavery and participated in the slave trade well into the 19th century. Most Northern whites believed in the superiority of the white race.
Fact number three: Lincoln despised slavery, but did not make its abolition a part of his war policy until after the Battle of Sharpsburg in September of 1862. The January 1863 Emancipation was timed to encourage Northern Soldiers to re-enlist, and now fight to end slavery as well as preserve the Union.
Fact number four: The South was not only fighting to gain independence, but also to keep slavery legal. It was not until January of 1865 that the Confederate Congress agreed to let slaves join the Confederate armies with the promise that if the war was won, slaves who fought for the conderacy would be freed. To little too late.
Fact number five: The South lost over 250,000 men in battle. The north lost over 350,000 men in battle. In the months that followed the end of the war more than 250,000 men died from infection caused by battlefield wounds. America lost almost 1,000,000 men because it could not see at the time how evil slavery was.
Conclusion: Slavery was the National sin, not the
Southern sin, it just took the South a little more time and a whole lot of blood to recognise that slavery was totally inconsistent with what America was all about. But God's judgement was on the whole nation, and the whole nation suffered for the sin of slavery. The soldiers of the South were brave and noble men. But they were fighting for a culture and a way of life that had to die.
We should not be too harsh on them for they were products of their time, and most who fought never owned a slave. Butthey fought for a government with an official policy regarding slavery that was wrong, and that is the historical reality of it.
