It is clear from Chandra Manning’s book What This Cruel War Was Over, slavery was a key cause of the Civil War. However, slavery falls under the “umbrella” of liberty, which was attractive to Union soldiers and non-slaveholding Confederates. Each side had its own definition of liberty; for Confederates it was the right to own slaves and for the Union is the right to freedom. While the soldiers were fighting over slavery, the war was attractive to both sides because they were also fighting for what they believed to be morally right.
For white southerners, the right to own slaves was an inalienable right. When the Federal government looked to be denying them that freedom, they chose to secede from the Union and establish a government that would defend white liberty. They had an economic system that was based around slavery and its abolition was viewed as a threat against their way of life. However, not many white southerners owned slaves so when secession led to war, why did so many of them take up arms to defend the right to something they did not own? The first reason is because slavery created a caste system that made all whites equal on some level. Even the poorest white southerners were not on the lowest rung of society as black slaves were the lowest caste. Without slavery, there would be nothing saving these white men from being of the lowest in society. The capturing of a black Union soldier even provided a means for social mobility.
Another reason that white southerners would fight for the Confederacy was a fear of freed black slaves. On page 81, Manning mentions an Arkansas soldier who had a nightmare of blacks eating at the same table was his white wife. The main fear was that freed blacks would react violently towards white southerners for the their mistreatment of slaves. Many imagined violent uprisings and former slaves murdering the wives and children of Confederate soldiers. While this did not occur that often, this was an intrinsic fear that existed in the minds of white southerners. When the Emancipation Proclamation was issued on January 1, 1863, it was clear that the Union government had made the Civil War about slavery. Therefore, a Confederate victory became key to the preservation of the southern right to slavery.
On the other hand, northern white soldiers fought because they believed slavery to be morally wrong and that everyone had the right to freedom. While many felt that blacks were inferior to whites, no human being deserved to be enslaved. In essence, the system of slavery conflicted with the democratic concept of liberty. As no other society had a democratic, republican government, the need to preserve the Union for the sake of democracy was a key reason to fight. By taking up arms against the Confederates, white northerners hoped to do away with a system that denied human beings their basic rights. When the Emancipation Proclamation passed, white northerners were more likely to fight against the evils of slavery. For Union soldiers, slavery was so wrong morally, they would fight to see its destruction.
While both sides appeared to fight for different rights, they fought for their own personal concept of liberty. Manning makes it clear that slavery was the key behind this clash of moral and social ideals.