Don't deny history

When John Ray stated in his July 29 letter that "the Civil War was fought over states' rights and not slavery," he perpetuated a false narrative more than a hundred years old. It whitewashes the role of slavery as a root cause of the Civil War.

The primary state right the South cared about was the right to own slaves. The plantation economy relied on it. All of the Confederate States were slaveholding states. South Carolina's declaration of secession refers to slavery repeatedly.

The newly elected President Lincoln and many others in the North were resolved to stop the spread of slavery. The South was equally determined to expand it. This irreconcilable dispute led to secession and war. It may be uncomfortable to discuss our nation's history of slavery and the major role it played in the Civil War, but we shouldn't deny it.

Mike Burns

Wheeling