Although there are always many factors in historical events, only Marxists throw away everything but the economic. Lincoln greeted Harriet Beecher Stowe saying she was the little lady that started the Civil War. The issue was human bondabe, not racism.
And that means less votes for the Democrats. Is it any wonder that so many oil and gas fields are closed to exploration?
"The cotton gin made the production of cotton highly profitable."
Yes, it did. And I've read many instances where the North expressed extreme jealously that they didn't receive the profits. Money and power for the North were the main reasons for the Civil War, not slavery as is so widely accepted...