Head of Dept. of History at West Point destroys argument that Civil War wasn't fought over slavery

Colonel Ty Seidule is professor and Head of the Department of History at the United States Military Academy at West Point. In a five minute video, he destroys the Civil War revisionist argument that the Civil War wasn't fought over slavery. Of course, anyone who understands history knows that the Confederacy was formed to protect racist slavery, but far too many people still don't understand that or don't want to understand it. For them, and for anyone who wants to be able quickly to dismantle Civil War revisionism whenever they see it, this video is must viewing. The transcript begins here, the video and the rest of the transcript are below the fold.

Was the American Civil War fought because of slavery? More than 150 years later this remains a controversial question.

Why? Because many people don't want to believe that the citizens of the southern states were willing to fight and die to preserve a morally repugnant institution. There has to be another reason, we are told. Well, there isn't.

The evidence is clear and overwhelming. Slavery was, by a wide margin, the single most important cause of the Civil War -- for both sides. Before the presidential election of 1860, a South Carolina newspaper warned that the issue before the country was, "the extinction of slavery," and called on all who were not prepared to, "surrender the institution," to act. Shortly after Abraham Lincoln's victory, they did.