A. I thought that indentured servitude had been abolished by the Articles of Confederation. I've heard that explicitly propounded somewhere -- it might have been in a U of H "distance lecture" about the American Revolution, or it might have been that WSJ story, or both. Fact-check time. Oh, man.
B. If your statements are correct, then the Abolitionists, and particularly the Illinois ones (thud, clangg! hint) have got, like Lucy, just a whole lot of 'splainin' to do!
Oh, man.
Why? The war was fought to save the union.