I agree it was an issue. I agree it was an important issue. I just do not agree that it was THE issue....at least not for most. Sure, some thought it really important. Some believed it really was a better system than early stage industrialization with its itinerant housing, slums, lack of child labor laws, lack of tort law, lack of OSHA standards, etc etc that they saw up North. Some just got their backs up when Northerners they knew had sold their fathers and grandfathers the slaves in the first place and made a lot of money in the process suddenly started pointing an accusatory finger at them. Most however did not own any slaves. That was a large majority depending on how you calculate it, at least 3/4s of families and almost certainly a higher percentage than that. Of those who did own slaves, half owned 5 or fewer. That was usually domestic servants for townsfolk. The big plantations represented only a small percentage of slave owners though they represented a high proportion of all the slaves because they could easily have hundreds. Even among slaveowners there were plenty who saw which way the wind was blowing. Industrialization had killed slavery throughout the British Empire by 1838 and had slowly killed off slavery in the formerly slave owning Northern states. It was having the same effect elsewhere including Maryland, Virginia, etc as the process of industrialization spread southward. Slavery simply was not the issue that touched most. Tariffs and the feeling (based on good reason) that they were being exploited for the benefit of others via tariffs and unequal federal expenditures really was something that touched every Southerner's pocket. Needless to say, emancipating the slaves is certainly not what the North was fighting for. The whole "it was all about slavery" mantra is something that was cooked up years after the conflict started and after it had become a bloodbath by an embarrassed Lincoln administration in order to try to claim they had some kind of noble purpose for the frightful cost Northerners were paying when really, it was all about money and empire.
FLT-bird: "I agree it was an issue.
I agree it was an important issue.
I just do not agree that it was THE issue....at least not for most."
Judging by the seven "Reasons for Secession" documents before Fort Sumter slavery was THE issue for some and an important issue for all.
In every such document slavery is discussed at greater length than any other reason.
And even for those who claim slavery was just "pretext", the reason given is quite telling:
Nobody then much cared if average tariffs were 10% or 15%, but everybody cared a lot if slaves were arbitrarily set free by Washington, DC, and let loose on their former masters!
So it was "all about slavery" for average Southern voters, even if the top 1% of 1% also had greedy eyes on "money flows from Europe" and those so-called "Northeastern power brokers".