Many years ago, America went through a major war within it self over the topic of

slavery. In the years 1861-1865, America divided into two separate sections: The Union States,

and the confederate states. Although the major reason people see for the secession is slavery,

there are actually many other reasons for it; for example, sectionalism, protectionism, state

rights, territorial crisis, and national elections. For the next 4 years, the Union and the

Confederacy fought in many battles resulting in 828,000 Union casualties and 864,000

Confederate casualties. Now you may be wondering what this has to do with todays society but

today hundreds of statues and monuments of confederate soldiers and leaders are displayed

across the nation. But people are calling for them to be removed because they represent slavery

and racism which is a major social issue going on. I believe that the confederate statues and

monuments should not be removed because during the civil war, it was not just slavery the

confederates were fighting for, the confederacy was doing the same thing the original thirteen

colonies did when leaving Britains control, and the statues and monuments are a remembrance

of the hundreds of thousands that died during the war.

When people think of the civil war, what is the main thing people think of? Most likely,

people think of slavery as the main issue of the war but did you know that slavery was only a

fraction of what the confederates were fighting for. Now I do believe that slavery was the biggest

reason they were fighting, but its not the only and people tend to look over the others. Some of

the other reasons the confederates fought against the Union were state rights, sectionalism,

protectionism, territory, and maybe a surprising reason, Abraham Lincolns election. Yes, the

confederacys fights for state rights was because the states rights were to own slaves. To the

South owning slaves was a lifestyle. They did not know that it was wrong at the time. In 1619,

the first slaves were brought to America, the thirteen colonies at the time, to aid in the
production of such lucrative crops of tobacco. The civil war didnt happen until 1861, 242 years

later. Slaves had gone threw almost 4 generations of families so people thought slavery was just

a part of life. I am not saying that slavery is good in any way. Slavery is wrong, and everyone

should have equal opportunity to succeed but to the people living in 17th and 18th century, this

was normal even to the union. So why are the monuments and statues remembering confederate

soldiers racist now when at the time of the civil war they were seen as leaders fighting for what

they believed was right. If thats the case, then why dont we see Union statues and monuments

as racist. They owned slaves just like the Confederates and that wasnt even the main reason the

Union was fighting in the war. Yes, by the end of the war that was their main goal but they didnt

start believing that until the civil war entered its second summer in 1862, thousands of slaves

had fled Southern Plantations to Union Lines, and the federal government didnt have a clear

policy on how to deal with them. The emancipation, Lincoln saw, would further undermine the

confederacy while providing the Union with a new Source of manpower to crush the rebellion.

(Pruitt, 2012) showing that union only saw the slaves as a way to have an advantage over the

south.

Another thing people dont realize about the succession of the Confederate states is very

similar to the independence of 13 colonies from Britain in 1776. In 1776, the original 13 colonies

had decided to declare their independence from Great Britain. The American colonies had found

that they wanted different things and fought for their independent with the American Revolution.

So, this brings up the question, why was the American Revolution looked at as a good thing were

the Civil war was looked at as bad. Both included one side wanting to leave a rule of another to

have their own rights. Was it because the confederate states joined the union after the war so we

looked at them bad people because they killed Union people? Was it because people think that
Confederate soldiers were racist and should be punished for their actions in the war. How ever

you look at it, the American Revolution in 1776 and the American Civil War in 1861 were very

similar in many instances. For Example, both wars were fought for unity. The American

Revolution was fought for the unity of American Colonies and the civil war was fought for the

unity of the union. Another example is that both wars were fought between American people.

Now I know that a lot of people will say that the American Revolution was fought between

Americans and the British but it was actually the Patriots and Loyalists, as well as the British.

The American Revolution and The American Civil War are very similar so why is one more

controversial than the other. I believe this has to do with the topic of racism and slavery. In

todays society, everyone is worried about what is racist and what isnt. With tensions rising over

the topic, most government officials and mayors are trying to do everything they can to please

everyone and one of those actions is removing confederate statues and monuments. Since thy are

very similar why do we have statues remembering the Patriots who fought against the British. Is

that because if they had lost you would British right now. The Patriots did the same thing the

confederates did so why do we recognize them and not the confederates?

There are many reasons people think the confederate monuments should be removed. For

example, people say that they resemble racism and should not be remembered as a statue. One

example, they also use is that you dont see statues of Adolf Hitler in Germany. I have to

disagree with the statement because what Hitler did and what the Confederates did were totally

different and in no way similar. Hitler responsible for the murder of over 6 million Jewish people

and many other people of different races during World War II and the holocaust. The

Confederates killed about a tenth of that. There were 828,000 casualties in total from the war,

most of which werent even the confederates doings. Only about 500,000 of the deaths were in
battle or from confederate prisons. The confederates fought against the Union to protect the

rights that their states had. Whats different between the Civil war and the war with Afghanistan

and other countries who encourage terrorism? Both sides are fighting for their side and what they

believe. To say that the confederates and Hitler are similar is like saying that apples are similar to

oranges because they are both somewhat round. Yes, both were responsible for deaths but the

reason behind the deaths are completely different.