VCU news

By Mike Porter

The American Civil War, which is the subject of a sesquicentennial anniversary this year, continues to influence the nation’s government, politics and race relations 150 years after it began, according to Virginia Commonwealth University history professor Ted Tunnel, Ph.D.

“The Civil War and the Revolution are the two most important events in American history,” Tunnell said. “Until the Civil War, it is not clear what the nature of the United States is. It’s not clear if this is going to be a unified nation state or if it’s going to be a loose confederation of states, in which, if you don’t like what’s going on in the nation’s capital, you can split off.”

Tunnell said the war altered a society that for 250 years had included slavery and was considered a Herrenvolk Democracy, in which whites were part of a privileged group of society to the detriment of blacks and other darker-skinned minorities.

Amendments to the U.S. Constitution after the war abolished slavery and offered citizenship and the right to vote to blacks.

“In the space of just a few years, slavery is destroyed,” Tunnell said. “And then with the 13^th, 14^th and 15^th Amendments to the Constitution, the Africans are fully enfranchised, empowered with the vote, which in American society is the badge of citizenship. And that is unique in the whole history of the western hemisphere.” 

Americans are divided today over whether the primary cause of the war was slavery, states’ rights, tariffs, the role of federal government or economic differences between the North and South. An April 2011 CNN poll found 42 percent of Americans surveyed said slavery was not the main cause of the war, compared to 54 percent who said it was.

Tunnell, who has researched and taught courses in the Civil War and reconstruction for more than 40 years, said the primary cause of the Civil War was slavery.

“Put it this way, between 1846 and the outbreak of the Civil War, virtually every controversy involved in American politics, revolves around slavery, the extension of slavery, the morality of slavery and, in connection with that, race,” said Tunnell. “And if you look at secession conventions, you look at what white southerners said in 1861, there’s no question they were seceding to protect their property, i.e. slavery.”

Tunnell said slavery dominated the 1860 presidential campaign and was the single subject of the seven Lincoln-Douglas debates, each of which lasted three hours.  

“Can you imagine anything like that happening now? A single issue, two aspirants to high office, they meet for seven times and talk for 21 hours and they only talk about one subject? That gives you an idea of the centrality of the slavery issue in American society at the time,” Tunnell said.

Tunnell said while states’ rights is often cited as the main cause of the war, wealthy southern landowners were happy to endorse the power of the federal government when it benefitted them.

“States’ rights was always the first line of defense against slavery. But when extension of federal power suited the interests of planters of the South, they were all for vast extensions of federal power,” Tunnell said. “On the eve of the war, they were demanding a federal slave code that the federal government protect slavery in the western territories, a vast extension of federal power.” 

Tunnel said since the Civil War, the issue of state's rights has been used by conservative judges, acting on behalf of big corporations, to shield corporations from federal regulation. He said the issue of state’s rights has also been embraced by conservative groups to oppose federal civil rights laws, federal environmental protection, Roe v. Wade and federal health care reform. And he said the Civil War continues to influence politics today.

“Jump ahead to the Civil Rights movement. Time after time during the Civil Rights movement, the cry was civil rights because the Federal Government was attempting to enforce the 14^th and 15^th Amendments. Hence, state’s rights in the Civil Rights movement protected segregation,” Tunnell said. “Look at the roots of the modern right wing.  Ever since 1968, the Republican Party has essentially followed a Southern Strategy. The Republican Party to this day is strongest in the southern states.” 

While the Civil War freed four million slaves and preserved the union, Tunnell said some issues remain unresolved.

“To this day, underlying American society, I think and many other people agree, underlying our society today is the issue of race. It remains, even with Barack Obama in the White House, the most divisive issue in American society,” Tunnell said.