Top 10 Myths About the Civil War

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Did all people in the South want slavery? The answer is no. Not all people in the South wanted slavery, but most people did.

The people who didn’t want slavery and spoke out against it were called abolitionists. Most abolitionists were from the North, but some lived in the South. Some abolitionists, like John Brown, didn’t think slavery was right, but they still lived in the South. Some people in the South didn’t even care if there was slavery because they didn’t own a plantation and they didn’t own any slaves, so if slaves were banned in the U.S. they wouldn’t lose anything. Most of the Southerners did want slavery because they had the right soil and climate for the things that they grew on their plantations. Their plantations were huge, so they didn’t want to pay anyone to work on their plantations. They just demanded that the slaves work out in the fields and around their house.

There were different kinds of slaveholders. Some treated their slaves well by giving them gifts or money for doing a good job. Others treated their slaves poorly by punishing them or threatening them. While slaves worked on farms or in mines, they were often over-worked and punished. Some who worked as servants were treated as a member of the owner’s family. In some cases slaves were released because the owner died and in his will he wanted his slaves to be free because of hard work and loyalty.

One man, James Gillespie Birney, was a major plantation owner. After seeing his slaves whipped, yelled at, and forced to work under the hot and blazing sun all day, he finally realized how cruel slavery really was. Then he freed all his slaves and became an abolitionist who lived in the South. During his time being an abolitionist, Birney helped hide and protect slaves who were trying to escape from slave catchers. He was part of the Underground Railroad.

Not all Southerners wanted slavery because some just didn’t think it was right to have slavery even though they lived in a state where a lot of people owned slaves. Others just said, "Hey, we’re not going to gain or lose anything in slavery becomes illegal, so why should we care?"

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