[aristeides]

I'll agree that preserving slavery was a major -- if not the sole -- reason for the South's secession in 1861. However, it was also a major reason for a lot of Americans to fight for independence in the American Revolution, especially in the Southern states. Virginia royal governor Lord Dunmore and many other leaders of the resistance to the Revolution offered freedom to slaves who fought on the British side, many slaves either so fought or at least fled behind British lines, and many American leaders, like Jefferson, regarded this British use of slaves as perhaps their most uncivilized act in the Revolutionary War.

Surely these facts do not discredit the American Revolution as a whole.

[x]

Surely these facts do not discredit the American Revolution as a whole.

If the preservation of slavery had been the primary reason for the Revolution, it probably would have. But the colonists had other and more prominent reasons for revolting.

Dunmore's proclamation did apparently inspire Congress or Washington to open the Continental army to blacks, and the issue of slavery was less clear-cut and focused in the Revolution than it was in the Civil War. The possibility of emancipation after the war wasn't wholly excluded. It did happen in some states in the 1780s. It was far less likely that the triumphant Confederates would have taken that path so soon after the war.

BTW, thanks for bringing up this little-known part of our history. Judging by websites, it may be better-known in Canada than here.