[Mr. Silverback]

maybe you o mighty one should read up on the yankee slaves .of course that's not pc.

I try to have respect, but I just have to laugh when someone mentions Northern slave states as if it's some revelation, rather than a fact known by any child who pays attention in history class.

[usmcobra]

In all fairness, I believe that this stained banner should be attached to all these threads from now on, as a sort of truth in advertising.

[hoosierham]

Nothern slaveowning was and still is minimized in every school textbook I remember including those picked up just to see what they teach lately.

IF the war was all about slavery being so abhorrent to the North ,then the very first act of Lincoln should have been a Proclamation denouncing slavery in all States and calling on the respective legislatures to abolish slavery.

It has long been clear to me that the war was State rights vs. Federal control of all.The Southern politicians' choosing to make slavery the pre-eminent issue was a mistake.They ought to have done a better job of demonstrating it was one of several disputed areas of gov't authority.It is also noted by a lifetime of observation that the higher the population density the more people clamor for and accept central authority to direct their lives. Possibly it is just not good for humans to become so distant from the realization of how plants and animals are the source of food and so much more.City residents seem easier to form into mobs and rioters maybe because gossip and lies travel so fast there.

I note had not the "leaders" of both national gov'ts conscripted the men to fight ,the war would have been mighty different. Lincoln was as bad as any abusive slaveowner in the way he forced the northern men into uniform,and ignored limits on presidential authority.

[old gringo]

well i was taught if you live in a glass house not to throw stones.