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Northern and Southern views on liberty during the Civil War There are many different ways to define liberty and many different ways to define who is entitled to liberty. Many people can disagree on specific issues and yet still claim to both be supporting liberty. During the time leading up to the Civil War and the Civil War itself, northern whites who opposed slavery and southern whites who supported slavery both believed they were fighting for liberty. The north or also known as the Union strongly opposed slavery. Northern
Americans believed that liberty should apply to all people. They felt that liberty could be defined, as the right not to be owned by another person. Northern whites thought slavery was morally wrong. Just like them black people were humans too. The Union believed that just like white Americans, blacks had undeniable rights. Those undeniable rights that Americans believe they should have and no one should take them away, is one of the reasons why America was created. The northerners also believed making someone your slave, was going against the Christian religion.
The south also known as the Confederate States of America, supported slavery. The south had a very strong feeling that blacks weren’t people and because they weren’t people, they didn’t have rights. They north was doing and trying everything in their power to get the south to forbid slavery, and because of that the south thought the north was trying to make them do something they didn’t believe in. Just like when America was under the power of The British Empire and the British king was passing laws and taxes, and the Americans didn’t want that and so they wanted to break free from Britain.
The definition of liberty is the state of being free within society from oppressive restrictions imposed by authority on ones way of life, behavior, or political views. The north and south both believed they were fighting for liberty, but in their own different ways. Liberty to the north was, that’s blacks were being restricted by a society because of their color and their way of life. The south believed they were fighting for liberty because the north was trying to instill their values that slavery was wrong.