The American Civil War from a Catholic perspective
The American Civil War lasted from 1861 to 1865 and was fought between the Union and the Confederacy. What the popular culture and the mainstream media want you to think is that the Union were heroes while the Confederates were villains. They will tell you that the Union and President Lincoln fought against the Confederates who wanted to defend slavery while the Union wanted to free the slaves. The opposite is true. The South and the Confederacy did not fight for slavery. They were fighting for freedom and independence against Union tyranny. Even Pope Pius IX paid homage to the Confederacy. While it is true that Confederates abused slaves, there was even more slavery in the North rather than in the South! The North (Union) was not racially tolerant and there were even black people enslaved in Union states. Many received inhumane treatment in the North while in the South they had a humane labor. Some slaves even praised their masters and one slave, Harrison Berry wrote a book defending slavery after reading Northern Bias. Honest Abe is more of Dishonest Abe and was like a dictator, who killed Southerners who refused to fight for the Union. There were many atrocities committed by the Union such as burning Southern cities. Fr. Pierre de Smet, SJ, a Belgian Jesuit priest said that the Civil War was a chastisement from God because the US persecuted Sioux Indians who were Catholic! While the mainstream decries the Confederate South for slavery, they ignore the many Union troops such as Custer who enslaved Native American Lakota Sioux and many of them were Catholics catechized by Fr. De Smet.
For more reading, see Tradition In Action's review of The North and the South and Secession by Adam S. Miller
