'Ultimate moment of division': Historian lays out reason for Civil War’s relevance in 2024

Even though it ended roughly 160 years ago, the Civil War continues to be a popular refrain in the 2024 presidential election. A historian and author recently noted that the reason for its ongoing relevance has a lot to do with the United States' current political moment.

Former UN ambassador Nikki Haley recently found herself in hot water over her response to a question by a New Hampshire voter about the origins of the Civil War. While Haley mentioned the war was related to "what people could and couldn't do," she didn't mention slavery as the root cause. This resulted in sharp blowback — particularly from Black Republicans. Tim Galsworthy, who is a historian at Bishop Grosseteste University in the United Kingdom, told the Washington Post that "the Civil War has never really left American politics" but rather has "exploded in this moment."

"When the US is divided, the Civil War becomes that great reference point, because it’s the ultimate moment of division," Galsworthy said.

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As if to underscore that point, President Joe Biden seized on Haley's comments about the Civil War while campaigning at Mother Emanuel AME Church in South Carolina — a historic Black church where a white supremacist gunman murdered multiple congregants during a Bible study meeting in 2015.

"Let me be clear for those who don’t seem to know: Slavery was the cause of the Civil War," Biden said. "Now we’re living in an era of a second Lost Cause. Once again, there are some in this country trying to turn a loss into a lie."

Former President Donald Trump also invoked the Civil War while stumping in Iowa last week. During a campaign stop in Newton, Trump suggested that had he been in power during the Civil War, he would've been able to broker a deal between the Union and the Confederacy and prevented bloodshed where Lincoln had failed to do so. Author Joshua Zeitz pointed out that multiple attempts had been made to reach an agreement with secessionist states, but that negotiations fell through specifically over the South's insistence on maintaining chattel slavery.

Haley later clarified that "of course the Civil War was about slavery." She has repeatedly reminded voters that the Confederate flag displayed outside the South Carolina Capitol was removed during her tenure as governor (after activist Bree Newsome scaled the flagpole and removed it herself). She added that "we came together as a state" following the flag's removal.

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