That obviously doesn't mean that every southernor who fought was motivated by a personal desire to retain slavery. But if the Confederacy had fred its slaves at the same time it declared itself a separate country, there might not even have been a war. And certainly, the South would have gotten international recognition early on absent slavery.
Delaware, Maryland, Kentucky, and Missouri were slaveholding states that technically stayed in the Union, under the Great Emancipator.
South Carolina had a slave majority. Do you really believe that they would have fought and died for a country that freed those slaves?
South Carolina had a slave majority. Do you really believe that they would have fought and died for a country that freed those slaves?