Debunked Myths

The claim that the Civil War concerned abstract 'states' rights' represents a post-war narrative called the 'Lost Cause' myth, designed to downplay slavery's central role. The historical record is unequivocal: the seceding states themselves declared their motivations in crystal-clear language.

Mississippi's secession declaration stated, 'Our position is thoroughly identified with the institution of slavery...' South Carolina complained that Northern states had 'denounced as sinful the institution of slavery.' Most famously, Confederate Vice President Alexander Stephens declared the new government's foundation rested 'upon the great truth that the negro is not equal to the white man; that slavery... is his natural and normal condition.'

The specific 'right' Southern states demanded was the right to own human beings and expand slavery into new territories. While other economic factors existed, they all connected to the slave-based plantation economy. To claim the war was about states' rights in general ignores the specific, corrosive right the Confederacy was founded to protect—the right to treat people as property.