""You always think that happened so far away, only in the South, and a lot of it was right here in our town," she said."
And THAT is the problem - half-truths and sins of omission. Current-day Yankees who basically rule the education establishment (and essentially, the New England view has been the ultimate controller in the country - see how many people think Pilgrims were the 1st settlers in what is now the US, and that Thanksgiving is only from them) often don't even know, much less permit their captive students to know, that EVERYONE in the US/United Colonies/colonies had slavery. Only MA by the time of the Constitution did NOT have slavery. NJ only banned it c. 1830s or so (and apparently, alot of people didn't like that).
So, it wasn't just Southerners who had slaves, or who hated the idea of losing it. I think the big difference was that in the South, there were fewer people to start who managed to have huge tracts of land, built "plantations" (in the wealthy sense we all think of), and needed more of those slaves than did the merchants, lawyers and tiny land-owners in the North, who had too many neighbors to even HAVE large enough holdings that would be hard to manage w/o help (never mind, planting almost useless as a business because of ROCKS everywhere). So, their need for help was less, and it probably didn't phase as many people that slavery would be outlawed.
Worse is the perception given that Northerners liked blacks better. Northerners like most really couldn't care less, nor did alot want to associate with blacks any more than did Southerners. It was purely about slavery, not about race, really.
I grew up in suburban Chicago. Northerners paint themselves as open-minded saints as far as race relations are concerned, but I know from personal observation that there are just as many bigots up there as in the South. But the winner writes the history forever, so Southerners are all ignorant hillbillies.
The Republic of Vermont constitution banned slavery in 1777. Vermont entered the union in 1791 and never had slaves while a state.
The difference being that the Northern states peacefully ended slavery by amending their own constitutions while the south chose to initiate a long and destructive rebellion to protect their institution of slavery.