APUSH Podcast #2: War Between Neighbors

As someone who strongly believed that the cause of the war was sectionalism, I was quite surprised and taken aback by Ayers’ idea of how similar the North and South really were. He described how mostly we look back at the causes of the Civil War and search for the opposites, like abolitionists versus secessionists, and industry versus plantations, in order to give an explanation for the horrific and bloody battles and the huge amounts of casualties on both sides. He argued that this wasn’t the case though; that the North and South were far more alike than we were lead to believe. Ayers also brought up another very interesting point that if any event during the course of the war was altered, then a completely different outcome might have occurred. Every decision and every battle ultimately lead to a reunited and truly free country- but history could have been easily changed!

Just like abolitionists weren’t the majority in the North even in 1861, secessionists also weren’t the majority in the South; so the two regions really weren’t polar opposites like many people like to think. Focusing on Augusta County, Virginia, although they eventually did secede, at the beginning they were Unionists. This was astonishing to me because I originally thought that since slavery was a huge part of their economy and lives that most Virginians welcomed the idea of secession. Though they were pro-slavery, in fact “slavery had never been more prosperous” and Virginia was the “largest slave state of all”, they fought against secession. They knew that if war broke out, it would occur right where they were, and also that slavery in their state would be more likely to be protected if they did not try to go against the Union. This makes perfect sense, yet I really thought more people believed more strongly in secession in the beginning. In a matter of months though, Virginians changed their minds and joined South Carolina in the Confederacy. Even Ayers was shocked about how once they left the Union, their doubt also left. (Cognitive dissonance explains this though; once they made that irrevocable decision to secede, and put so much into that decision, they couldn’t afford to be doubtful; they had to believe in what they were doing completely, justifying their decision by saying God wanted them to secede.) The North also had a change in heart when this occurred. Just over the soon-to-be-border in Pennsylvania, they sympathized with the South. As soon as Southern states started to secede though, that sympathy was replaced with hate, and they were now ready to fight them. Ayers also touched on how their economies weren’t complete opposites either. Yes, it was slave states and free states, but 96% of Northerners were farmers, so this “agrarian society” associated only with the South, was not only limited to that region. The North may be like the South, but is the South really like the North? Ayers stating how the South also had plenty of railroads and industry seemed contradictory to everything else we had studied in class, so on that point I am left confused. Ayers’ ideas definitely gave a great counterargument to my beliefs of what the main cause of the war was, and left me wondering how such an incredibly costly war could have come from such seemingly moderate positions on both sides.

History could have easily changed at any point in the Civil War. It started with the fact that both the North and South greatly underestimated each other; both sides believing that it would be just one big battle, or it least that the war wouldn’t last long. The North, having greater resources, would seem the more likely winner, but in the beginning of the Civil War it seemed that the Confederacy was going to win. When Ayers said, “the best thing the Confederacy could have done would have been to loose in 1862”, I actually laughed to myself; how incredibly true! And ironic! If the North had had a quicker victory, slavery would have continued. Although it probably wouldn’t have lasted up to today, the outcome of slavery might have been very different. As Ayers pointed out, it could have been a gradual emancipation, there might have been compensation since they wouldn’t have been in war debt, or colonization might have occurred, which would have had the greatest impact on American history because all the challenges regarding race faced after the Civil War would have been avoided and thus never overcome. All the millions of people who died in the Civil War may not have actually meant to have risked their lives for slaves, but essentially every person was necessary in freeing them and changing the history of our country tremendously. To me, the idea that small, seemingly insignificant occurrences make such a large impact on the outcome of things is astounding. If things did not work out the exact way that they did, we almost definitely would be living in a very different type of society today.