Slavery was many things in America; for some it was a source of money and production, for others it was a terrible evil, but everyone's opinion on slavery was slightly different. Slavery had been a necessity for most plantation owners in the 1800s. Many Northerners soon realized the cruelty involved in owning slaves and rebelled against the practice. After the Civil War broke out in 1861, soldiers had conflicting opinions about what they were fighting for. Differences in motivations lead to the question: Was the Civil War a war to end slavery? The similarities and differences between Frederick Douglass's abolitionist option versus the common soldier showed us that although Northerners and slaves believed the war was being fought, most of the disagreement came from Southern slaveholders. They thought Douglass was crazy for wanting to abolish slavery and achieve total equality because that would cripple their income. These were the kind of men who were fighting, like Douglass and most Northerners, a war against slavery. Even though most Southern men owned and depended on slavery, they had different motivations for fighting in wars. Jim Kepler, a Confederate soldier, said, “Damn fool…Still thinks it's slavery” pg.66. Many ordinary people, including Frederick Douglass, thought that the Civil War was fought over whether or not to abolish slavery. Some fought the war based on this cause, but other Southern soldiers fought for a different cause. George Pickett, a major general in the Confederate Army, said, “I think my club analogy was the best. I mean, it's like we're all members of a gentlemen's club, and then the members of the club start poking their noses into our private lives, and then we get up and resign, and then they tell us we don't have the right to resign." pg 66 George Pickett gave this analogy depicting the American government to show the real reason why many Confederate soldiers were fighting in the war. Some Southern states believed that the American government was intervening too much in their affairs, so they attempted to get their independence.The Civil War was not a war to end slavery, but it was a war for the South to gain its independence from the United States Jim Kepler said, “You have to tell them, and make it clear, that what for we're fighting is our freedom from the domination of what to us is a foreign government. That's all we want and that's the purpose of this war. We founded this country in the first place with strong state governments for this very reason, for avoid a central tyranny” pg 65 Many thought that it was Northern Americans and African Americans who were fighting for freedom, and so they were, but the South was fighting for more than just maintaining slavery, they were fighting for their independence. Even though England could not support the Confederates, due to the slavery issue, many Englishmen went to America to show their support. Fremantle was one of the Englishmen who witnessed the Battle of Gettysburg. He said: “But it doesn't matter. The experiment doesn't work. Give them fifty years and all that equality rot will disappear. Here they have the same love for the land and tradition, for the right form, for breeding, in their horses, in their women. Of course slavery is a little embarrassing, but obviously it will pass.” pg 164-165 Fremantle believes that slavery will eventually disappear regardless of the outcome of the war, so what could the