Not true, either literally or figuratively, unless you consider abolishing slavery a metaphorical "rape".
I don't.
ladyjane: "They distorted the cause of the war to be about slavery."
Nah, nobody except Lost Cause mythologizers distorts any of real history intentionally.
Everybody understands the Deep South seceded to protect slavery and declared war on the United States to assert its "sovereignty".
The United States responded in order to defeat the Confederate Army, restore the Union and, for good measure, to abolish slavery.
It's really pretty simple if you're not determined to believe a lie.
ladyjane: "The very same people ran the slave trade and who ran their slave markets right there in Boston blamed the South for slavery.
There was a slave market right in Faneuil Hall.
Ironically it is part of the Freedom Trial."
For crying out loud!
You surely understand that slavery was lawful, according to British law, in all 13 Colonies in 1776, and that Northern states began gradually abolishing slavery starting with Vermont in 1777.
In 1783 Massachusetts was the first state to entirely abolish slavery.
By 1860 every Northern state had completely abolished slavery, and the institution was beginning to die out in Border States like Delaware, Maryland and even Missouri.
Massachusetts never passed any legislation to abolish slavery. The colony was afraid the slaves would be a welfare burden on the towns. As a result they stopped calling them slaves in the census. I know this because my ancestors owned slaves there after 1875.