The Monica Bird

brosephstalin:

This thought came to me last night, so bear with me here.

One major similarity in policy remained between the US and the Confederacy (besides not abolishing slavery in their territory) during the Civil War, both were imperialist.

Now, the reasons for the US being imperialist are obvious, they wanted Canada, Monroe Doctrine, etc. That was the big conflict between North and South at the outbreak of the war, this imperialism meant a lot more land that could potentially have slaves. The Northerners and Republican Party wanted to contain slavery within the states it existed already, however the South and many Democrats wanted to expand it into the territories and beyond when there was a beyond.

This slave imperialism vs. slave containment was the defining piece in the Civil War. Sure state’s rights played into this, but this was the basic argument. There were even plans to expand into Mexico and the rest of Latin America by both sides, notably by the Confederates, who attempted to destabilize northern Mexico through the use of filibusters (basic private generals, unaffiliated with any nation). 

In fact after the war, over 20,000 Confederates left the South and founded two colonies in Brazil, New Texas and Americana. The descendants of what became the “Confederados” ethnic group are still alive in Brazil today.

So while both sides were in large part racist to some extent, it is the export and spreading of slave racism that the Confederacy wanted.