The Battle Of The Civil War - 1627 Words

There is a long-standing debate over the causes of the Civil War in which one popular view is that it was a war waged to end slavery, while the other view, usually more sympathetic to the South, is that the contention was over states rights (in the interest of self-determination instead of subservience to the federal government). This is an interesting disagreement, because it implies a disagreement regarding which of the two sides was actually fighting for freedom. Despite the implicit opposition of these viewpoints, I actually cannot understand why this debate even occurs. As is typical of any war, each side thought theirs was the right side, and the war was indeed fought over states rights; more specifically, states rights to†¦show more content†¦The debate over the causes of the war is evident both in academics and in popular culture. When Margaret Mitchell published Gone with the Wind in 1936, and when the movie version was produced three years later, there were still people living that had experienced the War between the states. The culture of racism and the mythology of the antebellum South as some sort of very culturally and morally â€Å"pure† time and place were still alive and truly and widely accepted, at least in certain regions. Mitchell seems to have been imbibed with this attitude herself. Consequently, the film has been criticized for its romantic portrayal of southern plantation life and its nonchalant treatment of slavery. Its caricature-like depiction of black slaves as being childish and enjoying peaceful, easy lives represents an archetype which is well-known from cinema of the first half of the twentieth century, with characters like the black maid from the Tom and Jerry cartoon series. In Gone with the Wind, it is the character of Mammy (played by Hattie McDaniel), another black maid, who embodies the film s implication that the social environment of the southern plantation was stable and even ideal. Mammy ru ns the day-to-day operations of the household, and has an unhinged sense of loyalty to her masters. The issue of slavery is not