Northerners: How are you taught slavery and the Civil War?

I was born in New Jersey, but I moved down South (North Carolina) in elementary school. I never remember slavery and the Civil War being taught up north the way they teach it down here. Although I haven't seen any "War of Northern Aggression" lessons being taught, in the South I've noticed a tendency for teachers to try and justify slavery. They will explain how Southern farmers practically needed slaves because of cotton crops, how the economic policies of the North frequently hurt the South, how secession was about states' rights and not slavery, how the invention of the cotton gin made it necessary for there to be slaves because of how plantations operated afterwards. Literally, as soon as the Revolutionary War unit is over, these kind of lessons are taught.



I don't disagree or agree with any of the lessons, I'm just taking this with a grain of salt.



I'm curious how in northern states slavery is taught. What do your teachers tell you is the cause of the Civil War? Who is responsible? Why did the Southerners want slaves? It's really a curiosity thing, I don't remember enough of what I was taught in NJ to answer these questions myself.Northerners: How are you taught slavery and the Civil War?
Secession was about States rights pertaining to slavery. The Civil War WAS about slavery at the heart of it, nobody who knows history can deny that. Slavery also was not "needed" by the point of the Civil War, but Southerners fought to keep it because it had become a way of life. Most of the South never owned slaves, so why did they fight to keep them? Because most of the South was lower class %26amp; didn't want the worry of looking for work and money against Black labor in their workforce, AND because they wanted to keep their status (as poor Whites) above Blacks, who they felt SHOULD be slaves. It wasn't much else. Historians actually realized a few years back that the few slaveholders in the South actually spent more money maintaining %26amp; buying slaves than they earned from slave work by the time the 1860s had come around. So it was becoming even a burden because the prive of slaves was so costly, but att they didn't realize this...

Many Northerners actually wanted to keep slavery going as well because they didn't want Blacks moving North looking for jobs either. The Northern people worked in hard labor more often and didn't want to compete with Blacks for jobs. Many Yankee soldiers were actually just as racist as Confederate ones during the war, but the draft forced them to fight.

I didn't grow up in the North, I'm from the West coast %26amp; I grew up around mostly Whites in an upper class neighborhood at that. We were taught slavery around the no tolerance concept. I mean, during slavery talks we had to learn about how everyone is equal A LOT, it was like a major focus to learn that about racial equality at the same time we were taught about slavery. However, I learned most in college..
sourthern people wanted black slaves, the north thought it was wrong

they fought a war over it, the south lost, the slaves were then freedNortherners: How are you taught slavery and the Civil War?
exactly. the civil war was never about slavery
In high school I was taught that the Civil War stemmed from many things, not just slavery. It resulted from unfair taxation, economic and social differences, and state's rights.

Southern society was very different than Northern society. They were "genteel", believing that life should be filled with leisure and elegance. The rich planter class believed that working their own plantations was socially unacceptable, despite the fact that the majority of Southerners worked their own farms because they couldn't afford slaves. Why else would a person want a slave? They didn't want to toil and labor. They just wanted to reap the benefits.


And "their" explanation does indeed sound like justification. Southerners really did NEED to enslave, torture, and sometimes kill another human being? What a bunch of bs.
One thing that I was taught was that the North and the South were basically two different countries before the war.

The crops they grew, how their society behaved, and of course how people lived were almost entirely different.



As far as why the south wanted slaves, they were what kept the wealthy and elite in their throne.



Imagine yourself in their boots. Cotton is king, the most valuable crop. I imagine, living in NC, you've seen cotton.

It isn't like corn or most other crops. You can't just cut it at some point and have your product. It isn't until 1850 that the cotton picker is created.

Until then, picking by hand is the only way to get it off the plant.



What follows from there is simple business. The reason why people switched from 40 workers to plows pulled by horses. Why plows pulled by horses turned to tractors.



The simple fact is that a slave, though as expensive at the time as a modern car, could pay for themselves.

They worked for nearly free, you just had to feed them and give them some kind of lodging. They could work continuously. They could reproduce, and their children could work once they were old enough.



To really understand it though, you really have to dig into where slavery began in the U.S. It wasn't cotton picking in the south either. They were building cities up north long before they were being brought to the south.



As far as the rest of it goes. It's basically a lot of pointing fingers. Both sides did a lot of bad, a lot of things that should leave them hanging their heads in shame. But of course, for many it's easier to just blame the other side for doing wrong than admit they did wrong as well.

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