[DiogenesLamp]

Contracts made under duress are not valid. But saying agree with this amendment or you will not be readmitted to the Union is not duress.

So let me get this straight. You think they fought a bloody war for years to protect slavery, and all the North had to do was ask, and they would give it up?

You seriously believe that?

[Ditto]

You think they fought a bloody war for years to protect slavery, and all the North had to do was ask, and they would give it up?

Well you need to look up the history of the 13th amendment. Turns out the guys who fought to preserve slavery were for the most part not in the Southern state legislatures then. It was the reconstructionist Republican legislatures who approved that amendment. Some states like Mississippi never ratified it.