Readers of The Red Badge of Courage will note that a sense of confusion and cloudiness pervades the novel. Crane creates this impression intentionally to evoke both the political and military haze that characterized the Civil War, the setting for the novel.
Politically, the Civil War was far from a cut-and-dried conflict to determine the issue of slavery. Two larger issues clouded the political atmosphere of the time, contributing to the division of the Union: states' rights (the southern states considered the institution of slavery one of those rights) and economic development in the South.
The South felt that each state was a sovereign entity and had the right to conduct its business (including having the option to hold slaves) without interference from the federal government. The North, of course, did not support this view. The North believed that all states were subject to the laws of the federal government as determined by each states' representatives operating under the guidance of the Constitution.
Economically, the South was operating in an economy that focused on agriculture, specifically on cotton. As long as the cotton markets in England and France, where textiles were produced, held firm, the Southern states producing cotton could retain their way of life. The most-recognized institution in this way of life was the plantation, a farming operation, generally focusing on cotton production, requiring large numbers of people to do the work necessary to turn a profit. Even though machinery, including the cotton gin, was available to help with the planting and the harvesting of commodities, the labor provided by slaves was essential for both small farmers and large plantation owners to operate their businesses successfully. Even southerners who opposed slavery on moral grounds recognized that, economically, they could not operate their farms without this help.
