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I am not arguing the morals of slavery. It is wrong, no just evil. I had family in the south and none owned slaves. Some were well off and some were dirt poor. I am discussing reasons for the war and people tend to tie slavery on an emotional level to Lincoln’s reason for war. He himself said the war was about preserving the union and not slavery, until he needed it as an argument to win the war.

I am not arguing the morals of slavery. It is wrong, no just evil. I had family in the south and none owned slaves. Some were well off and some were dirt poor. I am discussing reasons for the war and people tend to tie slavery on an emotional level to Lincoln’s reason for war. He himself said the war was about preserving the union and not slavery, until he needed it as an argument to win the war.

I guess in the grand scheme of things, slavery is technically evil, being that one is being held against their own consent and forced to perform labor without just compensation. Some say though, being a Devil's Advocate for a sec, that in return for labor, they were given shelter, food, medical care (what passed for it then), clothing and had the ultimate in job security. Still upward mobility was poor indeed and families could have been split up. So overall, slavery was bad and I do admit that. Still we are judging the world of 1860 by 20th and 21st Century standards. We do have to remember that for most of human history, slaves were the norm. Keep that in mind for later.

Even so, barring the war and/or if there was a Southern victory with the definition of the Confederacy being their own sovereign nation, slavery's days were numbered. Some say that Lee had ideas of manumitting the slave after the war starting about 1870 or 1880 Maybe, maybe not, but I think do to economic and international pressure as well as technology, it would have died out. Why have Roofus and Jupiter slaving away in the fields when you could have John Deere and Westinghouse do it for you? Some say the Confederacy wanted the Carribean. I could see them supporting a nation for freed slaves using Cuba or Haiti maybe if not mirroring Marcus Garvy's ideas of a return to Africa. Slavery would have been gone by 1900 at that latest.

The Confederacy made one big mistake though, being the first to fire on Fort Sumter. We all learned from the schoolyard, the first one to throw a punch is seen as wrong, barring extreme circumstances such as exhausting all other peaceful means first.

Well, let's bring this into the present. Some say this was the start of the eroding of State powers in lieu of Federalism. I see it this way:

First American Revolution (1775 - 1783) - Good guys won
Second American Revolution (1861 - 1865) - Good guys lost
Third American Revolution (201x - ????) - Tie Breaker?

Remember my first paragraph? When you look at a huge part of the Black community today and even a big number of everyone else, there are slaves being made without their consent and/or giving their consent after being deceived or in duress. Welfare is a form of slavery, keeps people down, breaks families apart while getting their shelter, food and so forth provided me the "new massa," the Federal Government. Combine that with the weak economy as well as by design, there is no or little upward mobility, This is where we are headed. Although we can debate the past, we need to let it go but remember it as we experience the present and have concern for the future.

Slavery is based on human nature to control. We are now the slaves and the control now had by the Feds is staggering. You can war only so long against human nature. It will pop up in another place. Carpetbaggers raping the south during reconstruction was another form.