by Sparx

Created on: November 16, 2007

People like to assume that if the South had won the Civil War that slavery would have still eventually ended. History has shown us that this is simply not true. Slavery has always existed historically since the time of the Egyptians and even before (Jews of the Old Testament owned slaves) and in fact still does exist in some parts of the world under various names and guises. Many Union leaders were in fact slave owners and abolition was more of a political ploy to gain popular support than an item of real concern for the government of the time. Had Lincoln been able to gain enough support, it's entirely possible that he would not have bothered issuing the emancipation proclamation.

The economic base would have changed over time into more or less what we have now regardless of who had won. The economy of the South still has a large focus on cotton, peaches, oranges and other farm ventures. The industrial revolution gave them the equipment they needed to make it even more profitable. Even today the most heavy industry is centered in the north, not the south.

It must be remembered that emancipation freed the slaves, it didn't give them land or restitution. The only thing that really changed in the South was that the former slave owners now had to pay a wage to their former property for essentially the same work. Thanks to the KKK and the reluctance of the North to enforce fair treatment, segregation and other restrictions became common. In some areas freed slaves were actually treated worse than they had been before emancipation. Lynchings were common and it was not until the civil rights movements of the 1960's that the dream of equality began to be realized. Even in the North discrimination was normal. Blacks were rarely if ever paid the same as whites for the same work. Within the military black soldiers were not allowed to serve in the same units as white. In 1883 (18 years after the civil war) the supreme court overturned the 1875 civil rights act saying it was unfair to bar individuals or corporations from race discrimination. For almost a hundred years after emancipation it was legally and socially acceptable to discriminate.

Even in the 1950's when the civil rights movement began, it was only because the black protesters were already free that they had the ability to stand up and demand rights. Any such attempts before had been quickly and brutally crushed as "slave rebellions" by the military.

Would slavery have ended? Possibly, over a great deal of time. But it is just as likely that Americans of today would still own other human beings as property. But then another question arises. If the South had tried other political solutions instead of going to war, would Lincoln have risked offending them by demanding an end to slavery? It seems rather ironic that emancipation did not become an issue until after Lincoln started looking for ways to gain support for the war.

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