From: Jeremy Ford
Question -> Why Would people who owned slaves not want to give up their way of life?
This is a pretty easy question to answer. To help illustrate this everybody shut your eyes and imagine that you are a rich guy/gal living in a multi-million dollar house on a 100 acre estate in Florida right on the beach. You have 100 servants {slaves} and everybody in your household has 2 personal servants {slave} and they will do anything you ask. You won't ever have to do anything again, but you will still get paid. This example is stretching it a bit but that is how most southern slave owners lived. Now if you had everything and were set for life....would you want to give it up and set all your servants{slaves} free.... the answer is ......... Yup you guessed it.... NOWAY... Why would you give up all your servants and have to do all the work yourself.
This is how most slave owners felt. The South, in general, felt this way. That is why the Southern States seceded from the Union. Well that is my $.02 ..... I would like to hear everybody's opinon....
p.s. We are studying the civil war in History right now so if I can stay awake long enough I might be able to help us out a little bit :-)
Jeremy Ford
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Dear Jeremy:
Thank you for responding to my questions about the Civil War. You have drawn an excellent parallel in your answer. I'll be including it in my html'sshortly so everyone can enjoy it.
I find the Civil War period fascinating. So many personal stories and odd happenings. For instance, at the Battle of Culp's Hill, one of the southern casualties was a young man named Wesley Culp. He had grown up on the land of his father's farm and died within sight of his house. Or the general who was warned "Sir, you better take cover. There's a sharpshooter up on that hill!" The general, a little too confident, replied, 'No need to worry. He couldn't hit the side of a barn from th......."
Thanks again for your interest!
Your friend,
Bill Pritchett
wpritch144@AOL.com