I know facts are a troubling thing to have to deal with, but necessary none the less.
Fact #1 - Only 5% of people who lived in the Confederacy owned slaves.
Fact #2 - Slavery was legal in this country at the time. Lincoln freeing the slaves on his own would have been unconstitutional and likely impeachable.
Fact #3 -Democrats in the North were perfectly content with slavery, working behind Lincoln’s back to negotiate a separate peace with the North. That is called treason.
The war supposedly ended in April, 1865. However, there are a number of people who insist on continuing the fight against the Confederacy, even some here on FR.
And to the NSA trolls, FU.
Neatly and concisely stated.
I will suggest that slavery as practiced in the US had some unconstitutional elements.
The practice of having people be given the status of slaves at birth was an unconstitutional punishment by corruption of the blood.
Possibly true, though highly, often intentionally, misleading.
Only 5% (or whatever) of the population of the Confederacy held legal title to slaves. But slaves were generally held by the head of the household, and we generally refer to a family owning its home, not the father who is listed on the title.
Similarly, I think it is eminently reasonable to look at the percentage of families that owned slaves, not individuals holding legal title.
In the Lower South (SC, GA, AL, MS, LA, TX, FL -- those states that seceded first), about 36.7% of the white families owned slaves. In the Middle South (VA, NC, TN, AR -- those states that seceded only after Fort Sumter was fired on) the percentage is around 25.3%, and the total for the two combined regions -- which is what most folks think of as the Confederacy -- is 30.8%. In the Border States (DE, MD, KY, MO -- those slave states that did not secede) the percentage of slave-ownership was 15.9%, and the total throughout the slave states was almost exactly 26%.
Data from 1860 census.
http://www.civilwarcauses.org/stat.htm