ES

HIST-222: The Confederacy Wasn't What You Think

What the Confederacy Was

  • A centralized, antidemocratic state created to preserve slavery and enforce white supremacy, not a libertarian or heritage symbol.

  • Its leaders fought a war to defend enslaved people as property and to sustain a slaveholding order.

Constitutional Foundation

  • The Confederate Constitution treated states as sovereign and fashioned a one-term, six-year presidency.

  • It enshrined slavery as a protected institution and prohibited any law denying or impairing the right of property in negro slaves.

  • Voting was limited to white men, reflecting the regime’s democratic exclusions.

Secession and War Aims

  • From 1860 to 1861, seven states left the Union; four more joined after the war began.

  • Mississippi’s "Declaration of Immediate Causes" explicitly linked secession to slavery.

  • In Montgomery (Feb 1861), the CSA formed, installed Jefferson Davis, and adopted a constitution aimed at preserving slavery.

War Mobilization and State Power

  • The CSA, outmatched economically, built a strong central state to sustain the war.

  • First conscription in U.S. history; by war’s end, roughly 75\%-85\% of white men aged 15-55 served; exemptions favored slaveholders, fueling the charge of a "rich man’s war, poor man’s fight."

  • By 1863, starvation and food riots pressured the government; high taxes and impressment were used to sustain the war effort.

Slavery and Enslaved People in the War

  • The Confederacy fought to protect slavery; enslaved people resisted and some supported the Union.

  • The Union’s Emancipation Proclamation and the Thirteenth Amendment followed, leading to abolition.

Endgame and Aftermath

  • By April 1865, the CSA was shattered; total deaths around 620{,}000 (≈ 360{,}000 U.S. and 258{,}000 CSA).

  • Appomattox Court House: General Lee’s surrender; the Confederacy collapsed and was not a heritage to be celebrated.

  • Modern debates: Confederate monuments linked to white supremacy persist; Charlottesville (2017) saw armed groups defending monuments; memorials are part of the broader discussion on slavery’s legacy.

Myth vs Reality and Memorial Debates

  • The Confederacy is often mythologized as a defender of states’ rights; in truth it was a slaveholding, centralized regime.

  • The statue question reflects ongoing conflict over how to remember slavery and the Civil War in American life.