[OneWingedShark]

Actually, the northern states did acknowledge the persons of African heritage as fully human, which is why they and the people of the United States passed the 14th Amendment- and forced the conquered southern territories to agree to it as the price of resuming position as states in the Union.

There's an inconsistency here: if the south was conquered, that means that their secession was indeed valid and they were warred upon by an aggressive northern Union; but you have asserted the invalidity of secession as the justification for the aggression, have you not?

[donmeaker]

The secession was invalid. In pretending to an illegal secession the southern states gained no legitimacy, and they were recognized by no foreign states. In making war against the United States, the state governments were in insurrection, and the acts of such a state government were invalid and illegal. Their insurrection was defeated, and the US territory they temporarily controlled was conquered.