Lincoln hated blacks I suppose they made up that quote I just read on the Lincoln memorial last month? Loddy, that's just not true. He had his share of prejudice, animosity and dislike, but he also understood they were men, not animals. He hated slavery more.....with a passion.
The war was about federalism vs. states rights As I said before, it was an issue, but not the central issue.
Fact is, the original compromise between North and South was made when the Union was started.....thus the 3/5 person provision in the first Constitution. The early writings of Jefferson, Adams, Madison, etc. all lament they had to do this horrid compromise.
The Abolitionist movement was extraordinarily powerful in the North and despised by the South, it was far more explosive than the abortion issue today.
Fact is, the Northern abolitionists were right, slavery was a horrible institution. You can't separate slavery from the South, or the war...it can't be done with honesty.
That isn't to say that many good traditions and wonderful things weren't there alongside this horrible thing. They were. I detest Hollywood depictions of Southerners that are all as dumb as turnips, and evil inbred mountain folk as much as you do. But don't go to the other extreme and say that the holocaust didn't exist.
It did, likewise was slavery the main reason for the war.