I usually do not comment on this blog about current events. Recently, something happened that made me think about the current state of our country. As many know, Nikki Haley is running for president in 2024. A question she was asked recently struck me as strange (and bothersome). She was asked, “What was the cause of the Civil War in America? Haley paused and said, “Well, don’t come at me with an easy question.” She then added: “I mean, I think the cause of the Civil War was basically how government was going to run, what you could and couldn’t do, the freedoms in what people could and couldn’t do.”
Of course, she was supposed to give a different answer. The media lit up for a few days, and Haley was forced into producing the “proper” answer. Of course, the “proper answer” in America today is “Slavery”. This strikes me as yet another failure of our current education system. First of all, how can you describe a war with one word? Those who study history (I am not a scholar, but I enjoy history) know that something as complicated as war cannot relegated to a one-word answer. OK. Let’s do an exercise – What was the cause of WWII, one-word answers only – Pearl Harbor? That is a two-word answer but will fit the media sound bite narrative.
OK. So, WWII was caused by Pearl Harbor. But what about the guy named Hitler in Germany? So that doesn’t work. How about WWI? One-word answers only. You could say the assassination of Archduke Franz Ferdinand of Austria – but that is a sentence. How about “assassination” – that would fit. But it also makes no sense as there was a long list of grievances in WWI and WWII, from economics to Nationalism to tariffs. In other words, wars do not happen for one-word reasons.
Tariffs on the South before the Civil War were a huge reason for the discontent. It is estimated that Approximately 80% of the tariffs on southern cotton were being used to fund the North’s big government projects. About 70% of the population in America was in the North. So, the South was being outvoted on many things in Washington and felt they were not represented on certain issues. Lincoln even bothered the South more, pushing more issues to which they did not agree. They thought that it was inevitable they would be forced into the North’s will. And they were. The Emancipation Proclamation, signed on Jan 1, 1863, by Lincoln, applied only to the Southern States; in the North, Slavery was still legal until the 13th Amendment was passed after the Civil War in 1865. No wonder the South felt singled out on the issue of slavery.
The Civil War wasn’t a sudden explosion but a long-simmering pot of tensions finally boiling over. For over eight decades, North and South clashed over fundamental issues shaping American life and politics. Economic practices, cultural values, and the reach of the federal government were all points of contention. However, the most potent ingredient in this volatile mix was slavery; its existence and expansion deeply divided the nation. The South had Slaves, and the North was afraid the Slaves would take their jobs. Beyond this central issue, other factors fueled the flames, including partisan politics, the passionate fight against slavery (abolitionism), debates about states’ rights versus secession, the rise of nationalist sentiments in both regions, the push for westward expansion, the changing economic landscape, and the modernizing forces sweeping through the nation in the years leading up to the war (Antebellum period). Understanding these diverse and complex factors is crucial to truly grasping the tragedy of the Civil War.
We do not have the room to get into all of these, but a quick study comes up with many more reasons than just “Slavery.” Also, Nikki Haley was more right than wrong in her answer. What we witnessed is akin to someone on the wheel of fortune losing for stating a correct answer, but not the one the producers were looking for.
One of the many things the Indians did not understand regarding Europeans was snap answers. The Europeans valued quick answers, and the Indians did not understand. They thought an answer to a question should be thought out before answering. Silence, waiting for the answer, was OK.
Maybe we should take the Indian’s advice.
One-word answers to sum up something as complex as the civil war is not helping anyone. It is pandering to the slavery narrative by keeping people ignorant. Of course, we live in a world of one-word descriptions for complex subjects. The media requires it. Give a quick answer that covers a couple of the basics (or less), and move on. Good enough.
No. We need to do better.
