Kentucky_Orphan
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Even among northern statesman, the idea to rid the Americas of slavery was a minority opinion at the constitutional convention. Both north and south viewed it as a sort of neccessary evil, and later it morphed it a necessary good in the southern states. The southern states, other than this attitude change towards slavery (albeit negligible seeing that the belief in the institution of slavery was still present) the south changed very little-in fact it can be argued that their worldview and how they percieved the country, as well as their attitudes toward the role of government, were closer to that of the founding fathers than that of the northern states. Even the strongest proponents of a strong Federal government in the late 18th century would probably agree more with the south than the north in terms of the role of government. Of course, saying that, they would probably be simply appalled of how our government operates today. The idea that the south alone was to blame for slavery and the conflict is lazy, naive, a regional-centric biggotry and ignorant. All of America was to blame, and 600,000 people died in a struggle that began to settle that wrong.
In the great scheme of things was the war about slavery? Absolutely! Was it the reason that most individual soldiers north or south took up a rifle and stood in the firing line in combat ? No. Did some slaves develop attachments to masters that treated them well? Yes.Did slaves want to remain in bondage? Of course not! All slaves wanted freedom-regardless of how else they were treated in addition to having their freedom denied.
Some of it off-topic a bit I know,and I apoligize for, but felt compelled to add my opinion to this ever-morphing thread.
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