The Author’s Purpose

It could be said that the great battle between the North and South we call the Civil War was a battle for individual identity. The states of the South had their own culture, one based on farming, independence, and the rights of both man and state to determine their own paths. Similarly, the North had forged its own identity as a center of centralized commerce and manufacturing. This clash of lifestyles was bound to create tension, and this tension was bound to lead to war. But people who try to sell you this narrative are wrong. The Civil War was not a battle of cultural identities—it was a battle about slavery. All other explanations for the war are either a direct consequence of the South’s desire for wealth at the expense of her fellow man or a fanciful invention to cover up this sad portion of our nation’s history. And it cannot be denied that this time in our past was very sad indeed.

2.     Which of the following best describes the mode of the passage?