[FLT-bird]

So, the first key point to understand is that the 1860 census was taken by household, meaning not just the nuclear family, but everyone who lived there including borders and hired hands, but not slaves. Slave schedules were kept separately and identified by owner.

Actually the 1860 US Census recorded BOTH families AND households.

This makes identifying slaveholding households relatively simple & straightforward. Several studies have digitized and analyzed the original 1860 data to account for both:

And families.

1862 Nueces Massacre, Texas Hill Country:

relevance?

Sure, laugh all you want, ~97% of Delaware households did not own slaves, ~50% of Mississippi households did not own slaves. So a typical young man from the Deep South in the Confederate army owned no slaves, however: his parents owned slaves his uncles owned slaves his older brothers owned slaves his sweetheart's family owned slaves his neighbors' families owned slaves So, yes, that young Confederate soldier who owned no slaves was still deeply embedded in the "Southern way of life" and its "peculiar institution".

In one of the densest Cotton producing areas HALF of White Southern families owned slaves - not all as you have portrayed it. And of course, that was only a small portion of the CSA. You frequently accuse me of "cherrypicking". This is the biggest example of cherrypicking there could be.

By contrast, Southerners who seriously did not own slaves opposed secession and Confederacy, refused to serve in the CSA army and were often mistreated or massacred, including the 1862 Nueces Massacre, Texas Hill Country:

No they didn't. The large majority of White Southern families did not own slaves....ie more than 80% according to the studies you yourself cited. They made up the large majority of the Confederate army. The 3 families of my ancestors who lived in Tennessee at the time provided 10 Confederate soldiers. The 3 families between them owned a grand total of 0 slaves. This was not unusual.

~1/3 of Confederate voters voted against secession

That depends on when and where you're talking about. Tennessee for example voted 54% against secession UNTIL Lincoln chose to start a war. Then it voted 88% for secession. Texas voted 76% for secession in the first instance. Virginia voted 78% in favor after Lincoln chose to start a war.

~10% of Confederates actively resisted Confederate service in places like western VA, eastern TN, western NC, northern AL, Ozarks of AR, Texas Hill Country. ~5% of Confederate white men served in the Union Army -- 100,000 overall. Those were the non-slaveholding, anti-slavery Confederates.

Both sides experienced draft dodging and desertion became a major problem on both sides. To say that those Southerners who served in the Union army or refused to serve in the Confederate army were non slave owning is wrong. To say they were therefore anti slavery is likewise wrong. People had plenty of different motivations for the choices they made. There are plenty of examples though of slaveholding unionists and there was precious little support for abolition anywhere in the country prior to 1863.

[BroJoeK]

FLT-bird: "Actually the 1860 US Census recorded BOTH families AND households."

OK, if you want to get into the weeds on this, the 1860 US Census recorded:

1. "Dwellings" -- meaning separate buildings or separate entrances to a single structure (aka apartments)

2. "Families" -- defined as everyone living together in a single dwelling, regardless of kinship -- including boarders & hired help.
   Multiple families could occupy in a single dwelling if they lived and ate separately.

3. "Slaves" -- listed on Schedule 2, by owner.
   Owners then are cross referenced with families to see what percentage of families owned slaves.

Now, in these discussions, I've used the word "household" rather than "family" because of the broader definition of "family" used in 1860.
When I say "household", I mean "family" as broadly defined in the 1860 census.

quoting BJK: "1862 Nueces Massacre, Texas Hill Country:"

FLT-bird: relevance?"

Massacres of Southern Unionists such as the 1862 Nueces Massacre in Texas and the 1863 Shelton Laurel Massacre in western North Carolina prove unequivocally that there were indeed many Southerners who did not own slaves, and opposed the CSA.
Such people were not well treated by their slavery supporting neighbors.

FLT-bird: "In one of the densest Cotton producing areas HALF of White Southern families owned slaves - not all as you have portrayed it.
And of course, that was only a small portion of the CSA.
You frequently accuse me of "cherrypicking".
This is the biggest example of cherrypicking there could be."

1861 Votes For and Against Secession:

FRiend, if we agree that roughly 50% of Mississippi families owned slaves, while only 3% of Delaware families owned slaves, and other states fell between those numbers, then we've established a discussable fact-set.

What we know from that fact-set is, states with:

1. More than 33% slaveholding families, in the Deep South -- those declared secession from December 1860 to February 1861, before Fort Sumter, in April 1861.

2. 25%-33% slaveholding families, in the Upper South -- those declared secession only after Fort Sumter.

3. Fewer than 25% slaveholding families, in Border States -- those never declared secession, though some did have minority secessionist populations.

The overall average of slaveholding families for the Confederacy depends on how you weight the numbers, but 26% is a reasonable approximation.

This means that some 74% of Confederate families did not own slaves, and where those were concentrated regionally -- i.e., eastern Tennessee among others -- those regions saw:

Bridge burners hanged in East Tennessee:

• Serious resistance to the CSA,
• Support for the Union
• High rates of enlistments in the Union Army
• Persecution of Unionists by CSA officials
• Massacres of Unionists such as the Shelton Laurel Massacre in western North Carolina, 1863.

FLT-bird: "No they didn't.
The large majority of White Southern families did not own slaves....ie more than 80% according to the studies you yourself cited.
They made up the large majority of the Confederate army.
The 3 families of my ancestors who lived in Tennessee at the time provided 10 Confederate soldiers.
The 3 families between them owned a grand total of 0 slaves.
This was not unusual."

You're right because Eastern Tennessee:

1. Home of Lincoln's VP, then Pres. Andrew Johnson, a hotbed of Southern Unionism, had few to zero slaves -- 9% overall.

2. Supplied more troops to the Union army (~31,000) than to the CSA (~20,000).

3. Confederates hanged East Tennessee Unionists, confiscated their properties and drafted their young men.

4. Remained a solid Republican region even in the post War Solid Democratic South, well into the late 20th century.

So, if your ancestors from East Tennessee served the CSA army, it's because they were drafted and served to avoid Confederates confiscating their families' properties for being Southern Unionists.
Most East Tennesseans were Unionists during the Civil War, and remained loyal Republicans to this day.

FLT-bird: "That depends on when and where you're talking about.
Tennessee for example voted 54% against secession UNTIL Lincoln chose to start a war.
Then it voted 88% for secession.
Texas voted 76% for secession in the first instance.
Virginia voted 78% in favor after Lincoln chose to start a war."

Actually, it was Jefferson Davis who chose to start war, and for precisely the reasons you listed here: because he knew that war would flip the entire Upper South, plus possibly Border States, from Union to Confederate.

But East Tennessee is a case in point: even on June 8, 1861 -- long after Fort Sumter and Union forces occupying parts of Virginia -- in Tennessee's secession referendum, nearly two‑thirds of East Tennesseans voted against secession, despite Tennessee overall voting in favor.

FLT-bird: "To say that those Southerners who served in the Union army or refused to serve in the Confederate army were non slave owning is wrong.
To say they were therefore anti slavery is likewise wrong. "

Naw...
The fact is that nearly every pro-Union anti-Confederate Southern region also had few to no slaves, including:

1. Western Virginia
2. Eastern Tennessee
3. Western North Carolina
4. Northern Alabama
5. Arkansas Osarks
6. Texas Hill Country

Overall, circa 100,000 Confederate state whites served in the Union Army, and of those the vast majority came from the above regions.
For comparison, there were no major enlistments from Northern free-states in the Confederate army and estimates of individual soldiers range from a few hundred total to possibly 1,000.

Bottom line: Being anti-slavery made ~100,000 Confederates into Union Army soldiers.
Being pro-slavery turned maybe 1,000 Union free-state men into Confederate Army soldiers.