Yes, the Civil War was about economics. The economy was slavery

Lately I have been thinking about the Civil War and its causes, especially after reading President Trump’s latest outburst. I even ended up rewatching Ken Burns’ The Civil War on Prime.

He complained that Smithsonian museums are “out of control” because they talk about “how bad slavery was” and “how horrible our country is.”

When a president of the United States is angry that our museums remind people that slavery was horrific, he is telling us exactly what side of history he is on.

It is nonsense to claim that the Civil War had nothing to do with slavery.

Yes, there were economic issues for the Civil War. But the Southern economy was slavery.

Confederate leaders themselves said this, loudly and without shame. They told us what they were fighting for.

Confederate Vice President Alexander H. Stephens said it openly in 1861 in what became known as the Cornerstone Speech:

“Our new government is founded upon exactly the opposite idea [from the U.S. Constitution]; its foundations are laid, its cornerstone rests, upon the great truth that the negro is not equal to the white man; that slavery, subordination to the superior race, is his natural and normal condition.”

Jefferson Davis, President of the Confederacy, was just as blunt that same year:

“We are fighting for independence, that those who come after us may be free men. This slavery question is the cause of the war.”

The states themselves were not subtle either. Mississippi’s Declaration of Secession began:

“Our position is thoroughly identified with the institution of slavery, the greatest material interest of the world.”

Texas said it even more directly:

“We hold as undeniable truths that the governments of the various States… were established exclusively by the white race… and that the African race had no agency in their establishment.”

These are not cherry-picked quotes. These are the official words that justified secession and rebellion.

So when Trump and his social media defenders whine about museums teaching the truth about slavery, they are siding with the exact same propaganda that has tried to whitewash history since the guns fell silent at Appomattox.

This is the “Lost Cause” lie, the lie that says the Civil War was about noble ideals, about “states’ rights,” about anything other than the South’s determination to keep human beings in chains.

Confederate leaders were not shy.

They did not pretend.

They said slavery was their cornerstone.

They said slavery was the cause.

They said slavery was the greatest material interest of the world.

Denying that now is not just ignorance.

It is dangerous.

It is propaganda.

It is an attempt to sanitize a bloody rebellion that slaughtered hundreds of thousands of Americans in order to preserve a system of racial terror.

And I refuse to play along.

The Civil War was about slavery. The Confederates admitted it. Trump and his defenders may hate that truth, but history does not bend to his tantrums.