What Was the Civil War Really About?

Obama Era Brings New Angle to a Longtime Pedagogical Question As Region's Students Begin Springtime Lessons on the War Between the States

By Valerie Strauss
Washington Post Staff Writer
Monday, April 20, 2009

The Civil War began 148 years ago this month with the assault on Fort Sumter and ended when rebel forces surrendered in 1865, but the battle over how to teach the conflict to new generations of Americans has never stopped.

Ask Northerners the cause of the war, and the answer often is a single word: slavery. In many places in the South, the answers can vary: states' rights, freedom, political and economic power.

As students across the region begin springtime Civil War lessons, historians say the election of Barack Obama as the first African American president offers an unprecedented opportunity to break through stereotypes and vie

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