Replies

DiogenesLamp on abolishing slavery in the South: "...I say it was on the way out eventually.
Not only was the social pressure building, but so were the circumstances that would create mechanical replacements.
I think it would have continued for probably another generation, but after that I think it would wane rapidly."

The only thing our pro-Confederates hate worse than having Fort Sumter equated to Pearl Harbor is having 1860s Confederates compared to 1940s Nazis, and yet, when it comes to slavery, the equation is rather good.
The reason is, 1940s era Nazis, like 1860s Confederates were also unapologetic slavers.
You see, when Hitler invaded the USSR in 1941, his purpose was to make slaves of Slavs.
Slavs were "untermenschen" suited only for slavery or death, and Hitler didn't care how many died so long as the remnant became serfs on Nazi plantations.

What's the point?
It's that after nearly a century of global abolitionism, by 1940 slavery still excited the imaginations of little Hitlers around the world.
Japanese also practiced slavery on subjugated populations, notably Koreans, and today slavery fires the passions of Nazi-offshoots like al Qaeda and ISIS.

Point is: slavery did not die a "natural death" as a worn-out obsolete idea whose time had passed.
Instead, it was a snake with many heads, all of which have not, even to this day, been chopped off.
So there's no reason to suppose that the Southern Slave Power would ever wish to free and make citizens of millions of their slaves -- especially in regions where slaves were the majority population.

It just wasn't going to happen, not in 1880, not in 1980.
And our pro-Confederates are just deluding themselves to think otherwise.