19. The Civil War Generated America’s Biggest Example of Revisionist History
Much criticism gets hurled nowadays from some quarters at so-called “revisionist” history. However, there has been no greater example of revisionism in American history than that which took place after the Civil War. It was a rare instance in which the losers brazenly rewrote the history about the conflict’s causes. Amazingly, and despite ample evidence that belied their claims, they got away with it for an astonishingly long time. In what became known as the “Lost Cause” myth, Southern writers painted the war’s causes in romantic terms that were uncritically accepted by too many for too long.
In such a revisionist retelling, the war was caused by a disagreement about state rights, mixed in with chivalric notions about a desire to maintain a way of life. Slavery is studiously downplayed in such narratives or outright ignored. However, the war’s cause, according to Southern secessionists and leaders at the time, was all about slavery. They were not mealy-mouthed about it, did not hint, imply, or fudge, and were completely unambiguous. Southern decision-makers at the time stated in clear-cut language that they intended to wage war against the United States in order to hold on to their human property.
