I am not sure what the point is?
Are we supposed to be happy because there WAS slavery, but it was too expensive for most people?
What am I supposed to take away from this article?
not the point - no one is happy there was slavery.
The point is that the agenda driven rhetoric would have you believe all blacks were slaves owned by cruel white men. That is just not the case.
I lived for a while in SW Virginia and they are proud of their Southern heritage and supplied many men to the Confederate army - yet some of those counties, according to cited census’, had no slaves.
What am I supposed to take away from this article?
That you have been lied to. That the people who have taught you about the civil war have mislead you.
Originally it was deliberate. Subsequently it was out of ignorance. Modern people don't even know the truth themselves.
98.6 % of the population did not fight the Union Invasion to protect the 1.4% slave owners, they did it because their homeland was invaded.
They fought because they didn't want Washington D.C. to tell them what to do; A position with which I greatly empathize.