Firefly is not the Civil War revisited

Put it simply, read the title. In the Civil War several causes came together to cause the deadly conflict. The start of the Civil war began with the generation after our founders, when the land resources of the South began to become a commercially profitable venture, i.e. cotton. This made it in the economic interests of southern landowners to find moral reasons for slavery, in contrary to the opinions expressed by the founders. Yes, Jefferson held slaves and only freed those that were his children at his death, but he said that if a revolt or conflict over slavery came about, God could not stand on their side. The act of keeping slaves denied the South any claim of morality in their initial actions in the war, seceding because Lincoln was elected, believing that he would abolish slavery. Mind you, this was bullshit. An action by the Quakers in 1793 forced Congress to admit that the federal government had no right to touch slavery in the states.

There were other reasons, like the idea of Southern Independence, which is based upon the idea of a fucking lunatic named John C. Calhoun. To this man, our constitution was not a permanent document, but a compact between "free and independent" states. He does not understand the meaning of the term "more perfect union." We are living under a vastly amended Articles of Confederation. The acceptance process for the current constitution was a process of amendment. The statement of a perpetual union in the Articles was still applicable.

Starting with the second reason first, we have no idea of the history of Firefly's new 'verse, what governmental arrangements where made when the planets were first settled, but it seems to mirror the American West decently closely. If I can understand what is supposed to be implied, people were dropped with only a margin of resources and then expected to pay homage and taxes to a central authority. In this manner, the war more closely resembles the American Revolutionary War that was lost by the less developed side.

There is no overwhelming moral issue that the Brown-coats are in the wrong about. The south's basis for the Civil War was legally and morally wrong. The Stars and Bars is a traitors flag, no two ways about it. The way the world is portrayed in Firefly is not in the color of a civil war, but instead a war between a nation in space and the independent edges of the map.