Slavery is a crime against God. Read the Confederate constitution.
God punished the South.
The South paid in lives for slavery, that's true, and the butchers bill was punishment, that's also true. The fact that they lost rather than fighting the Union to a draw that ended with a settlement rather than a surrender was a curse on the whole nation.
A curse we've wallowed in ever since for not admitting that State vs Federal power was as much the cause of that war as slavery was. Instead we've denied reality and taught generations since then that the cause was the one thing that could justify a constant increase in Federal power.
The South was and is still a good whipping boy for a nation that subconsciously knows it's guilty of sins as bad as and far worse than slavery since then. Will the whole nation pay the piper or only the States with the worst record?
How does stealing their land in defiance of the Supreme Court ruling it was illegal to do so and marching the Cherokee halfway across the country compare to slavery? What about the fine Sioux and Cheyenne reservations, what sort of rank does one give condemning generation after generation to enforced squalor and poverty get? Where does sterilization of Cherokee, Apache, and Sioux women without their knowledge or consent rank on the scale of things God punishes? Is that sort of clear genocide aimed at eliminating an entire race of folks better or worse than slavery?
If someone thinks the Civil War was God punishing the South for slavery rather than punishing the whole nation that permitted it they're into some very, very, shallow thinking about what God says is His perfect justice. God's mill grinds slowly but exceedingly fine.
The Civil War was just the warning shot across the nation's bow, not punishment for one or another particularly nasty bunch of folks. When this country is no longer a tool God is using for God only knows what, payment in full will come due. Americans had the best chance so far in history to build, and for a while made the best effort at building, a really Christian nation. But, power corrupts and in that regard we've shown ourselves to be no different than any other nation in history.
JMHO
And give Duke Ellington a smooch when he drops by. Love the handle Doll.
So “the North” didn’t get punished for their slaves?