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That the civil war was fought over states rights.
State's rights to slavery.
No, its not technically correct! I know the whole "state's rights to what" meme is fun, but seriously, the south was trying to compel the Federal government to infringe on the rights of other states with regards to fugitive slaves. If they were the true bastions of states' rights that lost causers argue they were, then they wouldn't have had a problem with that.
States rights as in civilian rights? Maybe my teachers just glossed over the history, but I thought it was fought because states with large slave owning populations were afraid of subtracting slavery from their economic equation.
So that’s the thing, it’s a lie of omission. The full line is ‘The civil war was fought over the states rights… to own slaves”. We were taught that north were not freeing slaves out of a moral standpoint, but to ensure monetary dominion over the south. Anyway, it’s carefully curated propaganda and white washing of history that is apparently still happening to this day.
I mean the "omission" understanding might depend on what a "right" is. An ethical right? Definitely not, as natural law makes all humans equal. Which makes the "it was fought over the states' rights" sound like the biggest example of "but the constitution said I could do this" in history. You'd think all the people who care about rights would care as much about ordinary law to be fair.