About ten days ago, I finished reading a new book about the financing of the Civil War entitled “Ways and Means.” I recommend it highly, because it is written in a very conversational style, but it provides a lot of useful technical information about the war that you don’t get in books that only talk about the military campaigns.
This isn’t a book review, however. The book also discusses at one point how a few Confederate bigwigs threw out the option of freeing the slaves in exchange for military service in order to deal with the Union’s massive manpower advantage, and how the suggestion was roundly rejected. I was dimly aware of that, but it occurred to me on this occasion that it presents the definitive answer to the question of the South’s war aims.
So, the next time some pro-Confederate reactionary tells you the war was about anything other than slavery, ask him why the Confederacy didn’t emancipate the slaves as a war measure in order to preserve its independence. That should be a lot of fun.