Honors Writing One

The Civil War is considered by many to be “the Second Revolution” ¹. It’s considered to be this because it brought forth ideas that had never been fought for. The idea of ending slavery permanently hadn’t really been a great topic of debate before the Civil War. The word “revolution” is often thought of as “cool” because being a revolutionary is different and unique. The difference between this idea of revolution and a true revolution is action. The Civil War is considered to be a revolution because it put actions behind words, rather than just talking about what could be changed.

Calling the Civil War the second revolution is definitely a valuable idea, but not necessarily for the right reasons. The idea is positive because if a change hadn’t been made, slavery might still continue to this day, completely destroying several of our amendments and the statement “All men are created equal”³. However, depending on where you come from, revolution might have a different meaning. Many from the south believe to this day that the Civil War deprived them of their rights to own slaves ². Revolution to them meant and still means a fight for liberty, justice and the freedom to own slaves ¹. Having their slaves taken away from them was the same as having property taken from them, according to the constitution a slave was only a fourth of a person to begin with, so they didn’t, understand why the idea of having slaves was so wrong.

But really, no matter what people think revolution means, it cannot be questioned that the Civil War was one, and that the idea of the Civil War being a revolution is important to millions of people. It doesn’t matter what the exact definition of “revolution” is, because it will always mean different things to different people depending on where the live. But no matter who you are or where you come from, north or south, east or west, in the end revolution only has one meaning: “A sudden, complete or marked change in something”. Whether change took place in the constitution or in your own life, it doesn’t matter what changed, but that something happened. Ideas and opinions might have been changed and norms might have been altered, it doesn’t matter what happened, but as stated before, all that mattered is that something changed. But no matter if you believe that the Civil War shouldn’t have even happened because slavery was obviously wrong and would end naturally with time, or if you believe that the Civil War is still going on to this very day, it can be agreed that it made a difference, not only in law and government, but in how people relate to and act around each other.

Some people may never forgive or forget the fact that their ancestors had once been considered property in both the government’s and regular people’s eyes, and in all honesty they cannot be blamed for still being angry, they were horribly mistreated for hundreds of years. For this, they may never be able to fully connect with people of a different race or ethnicity as them. There are other though, who may never relate to someone who either disagrees with slavery or to someone who could have once been classified as “a slave”. To this day there are several people who believe that their rights had been taken away from them the day that slaves were legally considered to be people, real people, not property ².

So was this idea of a second revolution of value? Several believe so, but all people have different reasons for believing that title to have value. Some believe it was valuable because it freed the slaves, changed the constitution and created anti-slavery laws. Others believe that it was important because they are now allowed to live their own lives freely without the fear of someone taking them away from their home and family in order to make them their personal servant until the day one of them dies. And some call it invaluable because the constitution was changed in a way that “it shouldn’t have been”. That, as stated before, by taking away slaves it was taking away their god given rights as a human being, (property, which in actuality meant ownership of self, not of physical property). But no matter what the reason is or is thought to be, the Civil War if not by definition alone, was the extremely valuable second American Revolution.

¹ McPherson, James M. Some Thoughts of the Civil War as the Second Revolution. 1 Oct. 2009. Hayes Historical Journal. 30 Sep. 2009 http://www.rbhayes.org/​hayes/​content/​files/​ hayes_historical_journal/​somethoughts.htm

² Horwitz, Tony. Confederates in the Attic. New York City: Pantheon Books, 1998

³ Jefferson, Thomas. Declaration of Independence. 4 July 1995. ushistory.org. 30 Sep. 2009