The percentage of families or households who owned slaves was much more than 5% in the Deep South states. That figure includes children and women who did not own any property. Add in the people who hoped to own slaves, those who were dependent on slavery for their livelihood, and those who feared what would happen if the slaves were freed and that’s a large part of the population, far more than those who cared about tariffs in any way. The slave states feared that they were losing their power. That’s not necessarily their rights.
Okay. So let's assume that it was 25% of households, not of the total population, owned a slave. That means 75% DID NOT own slaves.
While perhaps slavery was an issue, it was by no means the only issue for the vast majority of the population. Slavery did not affect them -- tariffs and states' rights sure did.
And, by the way, if slavery was the issue, then why in the world did it take Lincoln until 1863 to issue the emancipation proclamation -- years after the war had already started?
The South wanted out of what they perceived as an overly tyrannical rule. Why is that so hard to understand?