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It is also only fair to point out that southerners (and northerners) constantly had the object lesson of Haiti before them. There really had been a race war and incredible atrocities on all sides, although southern whites understandably focused on the atrocities committed by blacks on whites.

The end result was that Haiti, in the 18th century probably the wealthiest spot on Earth, was by mid-19th century about halfway to its present hellhole condition. Not a good example of how to free slaves without a race war resulting.

Lincoln sympathized strongly with slaveowners, as do I. They were trapped in a society that they had not themselves designed.

What I have little patience for is those who, rather than agreeing that slavery was an evil that it was difficult to get rid of, tried to turn it into a positively good thing. Any such attempt is as close to pure evil as I can think of. And this philosophy was increasingly dominant in the South.

BTW, S.M. Stirling wrote a series of alternate history books in which the "slavery is a good thing" philosophy is carried to its logical conclusion. It's called the "Draka" or "Drakon" series, or something like that. They're quite interesting, although horrifying.

In point of fact, the slaves in Haiti freed themselves, and the only way to do it was by starting a war, in 1789, five years before the French National Assembly freed the French colonies in the Caribbean. They were armed by colonials who sided with the French revolution against monarchists on the island. In 1791, the slaves turned against their masters.

I would not call the colony "rich" - it was a wonderful source of capital for the continental French, but little of the money remained in the colony.

By contrast, in Spanish Santo Domingo, the practice of coartacion led to a very large population of freedman, in fact, the majority of the population of Santo Dominogo was freedmen.

It is true that Haiti is a hellhole, but the Dominican Republic isn't doing so bad for a Caribbean island. I have no idea what the difference is but assume that government has a lot to do with it.