Parallels Between the Civil War’s South and the Capitol Rioters — and Why We’re Not Hurtling Towards Another Civil War
A Growing Division We’ve Seen Before
When Northern Senator Charles Sumner gave his speech entitled the “Crime Against Kansas” in 1856, pro-slavery Senator Preston Brooks walked into the Senate Chamber and proceeded to violently beat Sumner with his cane. The speech described the appalling nature of slavery and why it should be kept out of the new territory of Kansas, and it insulted the South so much that Brooks felt it necessary to assault his abolitionist counterpart. This was one of the many violent acts carried out between the North and the South in the years before the Civil War.
After the events at the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6 where Trump supporters stormed the building during governmental proceedings, many wonder if this is an end to the pro-Trump era, or if this is the beginning of a civil war. The President’s language encouraged the insurrection of the rioters at the Capitol. His supporters, of which there were thousands at the protest, believed they were defending the honor of both the President and the election. When considering this group of supporters, the similarities between them and the pro-slavery Antebellum South are unavoidable.
The South was under attack in the years preceding the war. After publications like Uncle Tom’s Cabin and the actions of activists like Frederick Douglass and William Lloyd Garrison, plantation owners were beginning to be seen as the true monsters they were, instead of benevolent caregivers. The North was growing less willing to compromise and the South was becoming more determined to hold on to their way of life.
Through all the arguments in Congress over compromises, canings, and heated tension, the underlying issue for the South was one thing: validation. At the end of the day, Southerners wanted validation for their way of life; they needed the North to agree that what they were doing was okay. The South felt they needed slavery economically, as plantations profited off of the free labor, and emancipation would destroy the livelihood of many Southerners. When the North wouldn’t back down, war sparked.
The conservatives who elected Trump wanted the same thing: validation. Modern upper-class Republicans do not see their lower-class counterparts as equal. Instead of the battle being between the North and the South, it is a battle of class within the Republican party itself. Many Republican officials are elitist, and their constituency knows it.
So what do they expect when a man like Trump comes in? He had never once cringed at the lives of his poorer supporters, and they loved him for it. Trump’s policies have rarely benefitted lower-class citizens, but his offensive rhetoric and self-righteous personality paint him as a man of the people to his supporters. Most Republican officials, along with most officials in general, try their best to stay moderate in ideology. Trump rejected the need to appeal to all Americans, instead of feeding into the extremist views of his supporters. When many important conservatives sneered that Trump brought their party “from the country club to the trailer park,” the president was too busy winning the votes of those “trailer parks” to notice.
There should’ve been no surprise when the country watched Trump’s supporters storm the Capitol Building on nothing but the lies and orders he fed them. He gave them the validation they needed. Throughout his term, he rendered their racism, homophobia, and xenophobia acceptable. When their own party wouldn’t accept their extremist ideology, Trump did. The Antebellum South and this group of domestic terrorists wanted validation, and they would go to extreme lengths to get it.
“We will never give up. We will never concede. It will never happen.” — Donald Trump, Save America Rally, January 6th 2021
Here’s the difference between the groups: Trump’s term expired on the 20th of January. The South during the Civil War had more time. They had more power, and they had more support. It was not just the working class that wanted secession, it was the rich, it was the politicians. Southern society as a whole wanted to leave the nation that disapproved of their practices.
On the other hand, the Republican party as a whole does not represent the actions of these extremists. Violent Trump supporters will experience an extreme loss in control when Trump leaves office, as most conservatives feel his actions and the actions of his supporters bring shame to the party. If we were hurtling towards civil war, half of the Republican party would not condemn the action of the rioters. Republican lawmakers would be praising the actions of Donald Trump, instead of suggesting impeachment and removal. His own Vice-President would not disobey orders to reject the Electoral Votes that nominated Joe Biden.
We are not moving towards civil war — at least not the civil war we have seen before. What we are moving towards, however, is the growing power of a group of people who feel unrepresented. Their fears of immigrants, job loss, and economic instability will skyrocket as Democrats who support progressive policies are elected and installed into office. They will be left ignored, resented, and open for validation. We should not be worried about civil war, but about who will take the opportunity to represent this group in the future. Next time, it might not be someone like Donald Trump, but instead someone more qualified to bring harm and insurrection to this country. The loathed, yet organized society of the Antebellum South is one problem, but an angry group of underrepresented people with no leader is a completely different problem.
We have made sure Donald Trump did not win the 2020 election. Now we must make sure no one like him can ever win again.
