This essay is designed to focus on that major conflict which came as a result of among other things, the issue of slavery. There were issues of economics and social class in this war. The relationship between racism and slavery was very clear. By the time of the Civil War, both issues went hand in hand.
The election of Abraham Lincoln, the Republican Party's presidential candidate in 1860, was greeted with horror by the Southern slaveholders. For the Southern ruling class, a Republican presidency was a "revolution" threatening to "destroy their social system," above all slavery (James M. McPherson, Battle Cry of Freedom: The Civil War Era. New York: Oxford University Press, 1988, p. 245).
Rather than submit to Republican rule, they decided to secede from the Union. In February 1861, a convention of slave owners established the Confederate States of America (CSA), and elected a provisional government. The secession of eleven slave states precipitated a crisis that led to the outbreak of war between North and South (Ahmed Shawki, Black Liberation and Socialism, p. 52).
The Civil War was a titanic four-year struggle that had a profound effect on the United States. Often described as "the first modern war," it completed the bourgeois revolution of 1776. The war abolished slavery and as a continuation of the bourgeois revolution begun during the Revolution/founding period, swept away those obstacles to pure market relations in the North and West, and established the dominance of the cash nexus in social relations, making this perhaps the most purely bourgeois of all countries (Michael Goldfield, The Color of Politics: Race and the Mainsprings of American Politics. New York: New Press, 1997, p.70).
The revolutionary nature of the war stemmed from the increasingly irreconcilable co-existence of Southern slave labor and an expanding Northern capitalism based on free wage labor. Karl Marx wrote, "The present struggle between the North and the South after the outbreak of war is nothing but a struggle between two social systems, the system of slavery and the system of free labor. The struggle has broken out because the two systems can no longer live peacefully side by side on the North American continent. It can only be ended by the victory of one system or the other (Karl Marx, The Civil War in the United States," in Karl Marx and Frederick Engels, Collected Works, vol. 19. London: Lawrence and Wishart, 1984, p. 150)
A cursory reading of American history will lead readers to believe that Lincoln had a moral problem with slavery and that this was the major reason for the Civil War. However, any in-depth and rigorous study will reveal that his real issue was the preservation of the Union, i.e. keeping the country as one, rather than having a divided nation. It will also be apparent to the reader that Lincoln did not believe in full equality between black and white people.
How do we approach the issue of the Civil War from a biblical and theological perspective? Both Scripture and theology seek to get to the root of the issue, i.e. the immorality of social injustice. The Civil War was carried out to maintain intact a social-economic system that thrived on the exploitation of the working class. This economic system, would by its very nature, widen the gap between "the haves and the have nots." Scripture and theology do not seek to appeal to expediency and convenience. Scripture and theology seek to call attention to all human forms of exploitation and injustice. From a biblical and theological standpoint, the Civil War was a "half-baked" measure in dealing with the issue of racism. The war just addressed the symptoms of the problem. Theology seeks to get to the root of the problem. The Civil War was carried out to avoid "rocking the boat." Theology seeks to "sink the boat" and replace it with another viable one. In other words, both Scripture and theology call for a radical overhaul of the economic, social, and political structures that oppress humankind in different ways.
True religion calls not only for the eradication of the system of chattel slavery, but also for the elimination of an oppressive economic, political and social system. May we be moved to respond to the clarion call of the Gospel for radical transformation.
In the Name of the Creator, and of the Liberator, and of the Sustainer. Amen.
Dr. Juan A. Ayala-Carmona
Please feel free to respond to this essay and state your own perspectives.
The problem is that capitalism have purchased the church by giving her tax exemption. The church is now owned by american politics.
ReplyDeleteDr. Evangelista: Thank you for your comments. What you say is so very true. The issue is that it was just as true as it was in the time of the Civil War. Who knows, the Civil War, in and of itself, was probably carried out with that thought in mind relative to maintaining and preserving a capitalist church, as well as preserving the capitalist union.
ReplyDeleteThank you for your insights. As always, they are very valuable.
Grace and peace,
Juan Carmona