AHA executive director Jim Grossman was quoted in a Washington Post article by Meryl Kornfield, “Nikki Haley was asked what caused the Civil War. She made no mention of slavery.” “Scholars agree that a dispute over slavery was central to causing the Civil War, said James Grossman. . . . He added that while Haley’s answer reflects the seceding Southern states’ argument that their rights were infringed, she leaves out that the states wanted to protect the institution of slavery. He also said it was inaccurate to say the government was infringing on everyone’s rights rather than some enslavers’ so-called freedom. ‘The problem is that the quote-unquote rights to which she’s referring are the rights of some people to own other humans,’ he said.”
