Right !
In Northern schools( that may still teach history), we were taught that the Civil War was all about slavery.
NOT SO !!
It wasn't until years deeply into the Civil War that Lincoln issued the Emancipation Proclamation,
a tactic designed to, free slaves only in the South so that the Confederates would be fighting two fronts :
1)the Federalist Union soldiers on the battleground ;and
2) a second front at home in the South, by newly freed slaves who would take up arms against the South.
In the North , a slavery labor force was not common, although it existed , but the Emacipation proclmation did not apply to slaves north of Mason-Dixson line.
So the Civil War history that I had learned in the North wasn't accurate ;
the Confederate "Stars and Bars" was really a rally flag for "States Rights" , and slavery was only a secondary,later issue .
The media consider the Confederate flag as a racial issue ; which shows that " History is re-written by the winners".
My friend from Alabama suggests that the last century and a half is a temporary truce ('while they re-arm ').
Much of what you write is factual, but not the truth. Yes the stated initial objective of the war was to squash secession and restore the union. And yes the Emancipation Proclamation only freed slaves in rebel territory. And yes, the average southern soldier was fighting for a general sense of patriotism and state’s rights. However any fair reading of history shows the root of those issues, and the only reason they ever came into play was the fact that slavery had divided the country into two irreconcilable camps. You on need to look at the pre-secession mini civil war in Kansas that was clearly caused by slavery and nothing else.
As for your statement “In the North , a slavery labor force was not common, although it existed”, it existed in the border states of MD, KY, and MO that didn’t succeed, but which really weren’t northern states. Slavery was illegal in most northern states since before they became states. It was the south and their supporters on SCOTUS that interfered with northern states in the Dread Scott case by forcing them to recognize the “rights” of slaveholders within their states. Somehow that violation of states rights didn’t bother the southern aristocracy.
Finally, both the timing and limitations of the Emancipation Proclamation were for political reasons, not because Lincoln didn’t want to free all the slaves. Lincoln was being pragmatic, and felt if he did so without a Union victory it would be seen as a desperation move. He also didn’t want to stir up trouble in the border states. But it was clear to everyone that slavery would never survive there once it was eliminated in the Confederate states.
There is a lot of revisionism on both sides, but to pretend that slavery was not the primary and overriding cause of the war is just wrong. Slavery wasn’t why the average southern soldier fought though. They fought for what the soldiers always fight for, their country (state), pride, and ultimately their brothers in arms. But it was the reason behind all the other reasons.
All that said, the so called “Confederate flag”, has for many southerners a symbol of regional pride, not slavery and racism. I don’t have any problem with people who display it for that reason, although I can understand why at least some people are also offended by it, especially blacks.