A new YouGov poll looked at how Americans thought about slavery, the Civil War, and Reconstruction. With renewed controversy about American history, the poll shows interest in how citizens think these subjects should be taught. Over the next two days, I will discuss some of these findings.
The poll of 1,000 adults first asked how much people people knew about the Civil War. While a fifth of respondents said they were highly knowledgeable, more than nine-in-ten said they had some knowledge of the war.
Men claimed to have more knowledge about the Civil War than women.
Respondents said that they learned less about the Civil War in school than they should have and that students today should learn more.
Seven percent of those responding said that the South had won the war.
While most Americans agree with historians that slavery was the primary issue in the Civil War, there were more than a quarter of respondents that said that the Lost Cause explanation that “States Rights” was the primary cause.
35% of respondents over 65 years of age said States Rights was the primary cause, while 24% of those under 30 said that.
Tomorrow we’ll look at how Americans view the war.
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Patrick – Thanks for this – Very interesting. I’ve just published a biography on William Schaw Lindsay MP who “ became the leading Confederate spokesman” [in the British Parliament] according to Duncan Campbell in ‘English Public Opinion and the American Civil War’. Frank Merli in ‘Great Britain and The Confederate Navy’ says that Lindsay “was almost like an unofficial Confederate representative at Napoleon’s court”. He was obviously in the “States Rights” camp. Although he deplored slavery, he was apprehensive that if all slaves were freed at once that they would not all have shelter, food, nor paid employment. He preferred a more gradual process. He was also a pacifist and wanted the war to cease quickly. One of the main reasons that he sought Southern Independence however was that he felt that the South were taxed more heavily than the North and had less representation in the Senate. His papers are in the National Maritime Museum in London and my book in based on these.
been reading about the Spanish Civil War; amazing the general political similarities of the rhetoric and ideological positions of the present ……..