House Divided: Collapse of the Confederacy III

Intro: A Moment in Time with Dan Roberts.

Content: In the end it was a matter of choice. Either it would be independence or freedom for the slaves. The rehearsed arguments across the South echoed the bitter national debates of the 1850s. Slavery was morally beneficial for both master and slave. Senator Hunter said, “what did we go to war for, if not to protect our property?” Howell Cobb of Georgia fumed, “if slaves will make good soldiers our whole theory of slavery is wrong. The day you make soldiers of them is the beginning of the end of the revolution.”