Percentage of Families Owning Slaves
Union Aligned States - 8%
Confederate Aligned States - 31%
So, those who state that few people in the south owned slaves are liars. Thirty one percent, by any measure, doesn't constitute 'few'.
Declaration of Causes of Seceding States
Read, in their own words, why they ceceded - slavery figures prominently.
The Constitution of the Confederate States of America
Article I, Section 9
(4) No bill of attainder, ex post facto law, or law denying or impairing the right of property in negro slaves shall be passed.
The states were forbidden the right of choosing for themselves whether or not to outlaw slavery. Which shows the whole 'states rights' arguement for what it is - a lie.
While you are reading the Confederate Constitution, pay special attention to how many times you see 'slave', 'slavery', and 'slave owner', and DON'T SEE 'states rights'. It will tell you a great deal about what their pre-occupation really was.
George Washington, Thomas Jefferson & Slavery in Virginia
"I can only say that there is not a man living who wishes more sincerely than I do to see a plan adopted for the abolition of it [slavery]; but there is only one proper and effectual mode by which it can be accomplished, and that is by Legislative authority; and this, as far as my suffrage [vote and support] will go, shall never be wanting [lacking]." - George Washington
"In 1769, I became a member of the legislature by the choice of the county in which I live [Albemarle County, Virginia], and so continued until it was closed by the Revolution. I made one effort in that body for the permission of the emancipation of slaves, which was rejected: and indeed, during the regal [crown] government, nothing [like this] could expect success." - Thomas Jefferson
Your "reasons for seceding" are largely opinion and quasi-historical summary, not the original documents.
Although the original documents often refer to slave ownership, it is mentioned in the context of the constitution, the promises made by it, the contract between government and the states and the rights to free determination.
In the sense of the feelings and writings of the time, even Lincolns feelings and writings, the slavery issue was more connected with states right as were the taxes, the railroad, the refusal of other states to honor agreements.
It was not until the southern states had had a belly full of it all, that they seceded.
I will grant you that many rich land owners who also owned slaves were important signatories of the secession documents. They were of course, leaders in the community.
What some pigheaded idiots will not understand is that the average southerner, the ones who fought and died in the war, were not fighting for their right to own a damn slave. They could never afford the cost. They had no need for a slave. They fought for liberty and freedom from a government that was destroying their livelihoods bit by bit. Their jobs, and their abilities to take care of their families were being eroded by northern bigotry toward the south, the likes of which still exist today.
Yeah! Tax us to build the rails and give us no sidings or access.
Buy our cotton for next to nothing and do not allow us to process it for ourselves. When we try to get out from under your mantle, threaten us and our families with retribution and harm.
Just how much crap do do think a southerner could take.
Slavery was a accepted practice and legal. As has been stated, it was not a growing enterprise and was in the process of becoming something that just did not work. Many plantation slaves had already been given their freedom. Many fought on the southern side.
Social changes were already occurring. What happened was a vocal anti-slavery group with access to the media of the day in New york City and Boston pressed their desires upon the new administration.
The southern states had already had enough and were on the breaking point. They, with no promises that anything was going to change as far as the treatment they were receiving, made the decision to secede. To build the mills, and to free trade their goods at a fair price, in a fair market. The slave owners were a minority group in this decision. They were not running the show.
The facts are not in dispute, that after the war and emancipation of the slaves who were now freemen and women, that they remained on the plantations and in the households for which they had worked and worked as freemen while living in the same quarters with the same rules and the same environments.
A number did not and listened to the false promises of yankees for a better life, only to become sharecroppers and starving half the time.
Yes, the legacy of slavery did in fact carry on in the eyes of some southerners who blamed the north for so much grief and hardship after the war. The legacy of slavery carried on as the slaves who chose to venture north found a more hostile environment than they left. Many returned and found homes in the south near people who did not treat them with dis-respect. That is why there is such a strong and unbreakable southern black heritage and history.
Now we can discuss a totally separate topic that is and has been a issue, but not at all linked to slavery. That is segregation. You must be carefully to not link the two. the reason for that is that bigot and desires for segregation is a product of race and social norms, not slavery.
Integration in the south, north, east and west is not at all a slavery issue. Many northerners believe that it is. Many northerners believe that southern whites are all bigots and prejudiced as well. Nothing farther from the truth. Blacks are just as prone to these feelings as whites.
Speaking as a man who has lived on both sides of the mason line, I can tell you that the southern black family as a rule is less bigoted and prejudice than in the north. They are not playing the victim card and declaring discrimination to the degree that they are in the north.
Many southern whites and blacks resent the implications of the north as we still hear it today! We are still sick of it and are disgusted by it. We find the Confederate bashing has formed rifts that may never heal. We say no, to the gradual beat of the same drum that once beat before to intimidate the south and the southern heritage.
In closing, I have never said nor ever will say that slavery was ever right. Hell, I am the direct descendant of white slaves or should I say indentured servants who were of the wrong religion in Yugoslavia. They fled to the United States and freedom in 1920. What is the difference between a person who is snatched of the street or out of ones own home and placed into servitude and a slave?
Why does slavery still exist in all it's forms and yet people say nothing regarding this and want to open age old wounds and long past repression of black that were sold into slavery by some of these very same countries where slavery exists today. Somalia comes to mind and other Muslim dominated nations. Why can't these same outraged critics do something about that rather than trying to eliminate the Confederate battle flag.
Why when we helped to eliminate apartheid and free their people do they say nothing about what happened and is continuing to happen in Mugabe's reign of terror and the genocide of whites in the area. It is all twisted logic if freedom and equality is the goal, and situations like this exist in the world.