At that time, much of the POLITICAL leadership of the South consisted of slave owners. Most of the PEOPLE did not own slaves. Couldn't afford them and didn't want them. I don't own any factory equipment, but if someone were trying to abolish factory equipment where I live, I think I might have an interest in other people's keeping it.
An analogy of questionable applicability.
That may be. The fact is that most of the men who made up the Confederate Army were, in their minds at least, fighting for the independence of the South from the Union.
The major travesty of the war is that 600,00+ Americans died.