TO THE EDITOR:
In a recent editorial discussing the ongoing conflict over Silent Sam (“Slavery is what the Confederacy stood for,” Jan. 26), the author opened with the old saying that people are entitled to their own opinions but not their own facts.
The generalization that secession was purely over the issue of slavery does not apply to several states, North Carolina in particular. So let’s get the facts straight. On May 20, 1861, North Carolina became the last state to join the Confederacy, five months after South Carolina had first done so.
Unlike South Carolina and other Deep South states, which were more thoroughly dominated by a plantation aristocracy, North Carolina’s pro-secession slaveholders had to contend with the state’s powerful bloc of yeoman farmers, who were mostly pro-Union in the early days of secession. In February 1861, state legislators asked voters in North Carolina to clarify the state’s stance on secession. Pro-Unionist voters prevailed, and North Carolina was poised to remain a part of the Union.
Matters changed in April when Lincoln called upon North Carolina to assist in putting down secession. North Carolinians did not think it was permissible to prevent other states from leaving the Union and wanted no part in invading neighboring states. While slavery was undoubtedly a factor, it was ultimately a complex set of circumstances under which North Carolina reluctantly seceded.
James Whitney
Sophomore
History
