He Publicly denied Being an Abolitionist and believed Slavery had Institutional Benefits

1. He Publicly Denied Being an Abolitionist.
In 1859, while serving as the superintendent of the military academy that would become Louisiana State University, Sherman attended a political dinner party. Fearing that his politician brother John Sherman’s anti-slavery optics would ruin his job security in the South, William explicitly calmed the crowd. He announced to the Southern lawmakers that he and his brother were not abolitionists, openly stating that he believed slavery was entirely constitutional and that the Black population occupied its proper, subservient place in American society.

2. He Believed Slavery Had Institutional Benefits.
Before the war broke out, Sherman lived for years in the South and grew very fond of the white Southern aristocratic lifestyle. In an 1859 letter to his wife, Ellen, he expressed clear sympathy for the Southern system, arguing that enslaved people in family households were likely better treated than any laborers on Earth. He viewed slavery not as a moral evil, but as an inherited commercial reality that the South should be left alone to manage on its own terms.

3. He Blocked Black Troops from His Armies.
While generals like Ulysses S. Grant embraced the recruitment of United States Colored Troops (USCT) as a massive strategic advantage, Sherman aggressively declined to employ Black soldiers in his front-line combat units throughout the entire Civil War. He harbored deep racial prejudices, writing that he lacked faith in Black men's fighting capabilities and feared that arming them would lead to unmanageable social chaos

4. His Post-War Legacy Cemented His Ideology
The definitive proof that Sherman was an authoritarian nationalist—rather than a human rights defender—came after 1865. When Grant ascended to the presidency, he appointed Sherman as General of the U.S. Army. Sherman immediately turned his brutal "Total War" logistics infrastructure away from the South and directed it toward Native Americans in the West. He spearheaded systematic, violent campaigns designed to destroy the resources, buffalo herds, and will of Indigenous tribes, openly stating that they stood in the way of American progress.