[Tau Food]

I wish I could say the same. I would be willing to bet that a very large majority of Americans, if asked "what was the Civil War about?", would tell you what they were told in school: that it was fought to end slavery. That belief is common as dirt.

Anyone who wonders why the states of the South attempted to "secede" should just read Mississippi's Declaration of Secession. Slaves were considered the most valuable asset class in the world (described as "property worth four billions of money"). The slaveholders were desperate, describing "secession" as "not a matter of choice, but of necessity" to protect their lives as slaveholders.

So, there's really no mystery about what happened. "Secession" was designed to protect slavery and the Union's response was to protect the United States and to protect the rights of American citizens who lived in Southern states.

Nowadays, nearly everyone opposes slavery and most people are very grateful that it was abolished. Slavery wasn't good for the slaveholders and it certainly wasn't good for anyone else. And, now it's gone for good.

[Rome2000]

And, now it's gone for good.

Really?

What planet are you living on?

Americans who WORK for a living are slaves of the DC apparatus that extorts money from their paychecks under penalty of imprisonment and monitors their every move.

The working man in this country is no longer free, but a slave to the former slaves, who instead of being repatriated remained in this nation and allied themseleves with Jews, Communists, and homosexuals in a mission to invade every institution and make non-compliance with their poltically correct ideology a crime.

Hard working tax paying Americans are indeed slaves of the political class who confiscates their wealth and redistributes it to the former slaves and foreign invaders.

I'd rather pick cotton and be guaranteed 3 squares and a roof over my head that have my hard earned money stolen from me by a bunch of degenrate beauracrats and faggots.

[Trod Upon]

Anyone who wonders why the states of the South attempted to "secede" should just read Mississippi's Declaration of Secession. Slaves were considered the most valuable asset class in the world (described as "property worth four billions of money"). The slaveholders were desperate, describing "secession" as "not a matter of choice, but of necessity" to protect their lives as slaveholders.

No disagreement that any threat to slavery would be viewed as an existential economic threat in the southern states...my whole point wan't about why the South left but rather why Lincoln chose war, and that was to retake the territory.

So, there's really no mystery about what happened. "Secession" was designed to protect slavery and the Union's response was to protect the United States and to protect the rights of American citizens who lived in Southern states.

This despite Lincoln's inaugural statement? It was about retaining territory and population.

Nowadays, nearly everyone opposes slavery and most people are very grateful that it was abolished. Slavery wasn't good for the slaveholders and it certainly wasn't good for anyone else. And, now it's gone for good.

Except that it continues to this day, all over the world. Overtly in parts of Africa and the Middle East, where it is old-fashioned theft of physical labor, and covertly in the more developed world, where it is mostly girls forced into prostitution. I'll agree that it is good that the legal institution is gone in America, but slavery is still with us and will continue long after you and I are gone.