The average Southerner relished the thought of killing Yankees and ridding themselves of the moneyed holier than though overlords in the North. Slavery, whatever. Of course all the glamor went away by 1862 but the slavery issue really wasn't a motivating factor.
Post 280: Slavery was the excuse to get a government furnished rifle, ammunition and all the Yankees you wanted to shoot.
Post 281: The South hated the North and slavery was the excuse to break away. Think of Lincoln’s election as a catalyst and an excuse for secession.
Meaning secession by the Southern States wasn’t for any high and mighty ideals but was intended as a provocation to start a war. Like a bar room bully provoking a fight. That’s an interesting view.
Sorry, I can't speak for your friend "Ilk", don't know him that well.
But for myself, I think I understand more than you care to admit.
central_va: "The South hated the North and slavery was the excuse to break away.
Think of Lincoln's election as a catalyst and an excuse for secession. "
Yes, somewhat true, certainly in states like South Carolina which had already threatened to secede under President Andrew Jackson way back in 1832.
But Upper South states like Virginia & Tennessee, not so much.
All first voted against secession when the only issue was Deep South slavery.
Upper South only came around to join the Confederacy and war on the United States after Lincoln's response to Fort Sumter convinced them they must chose sides.
Even then, huge regions in every Upper South state remained loyal to the Union -- West Virginia, East Tennessee, Western NC, northern Arkansas.
Point is: hatred of Northerners was far from universal throughout the South.
central_va: "The average Southerner relished the thought of killing Yankees and ridding themselves of the moneyed holier than though overlords in the North.
Slavery, whatever. "
Only "average" in certain regions.
In other areas, not so much.
central_va: "Of course all the glamor went away by 1862 but the slavery issue really wasn't a motivating factor."
Certainly not for non-slave-holding farmers in central Virginia, but for cotton planters in the Deep South who supplied the global cotton market, slavery was a matter of life & death, and current prices for slaves the difference between wealth & bankruptcy.
That's why it was so easy to convince them the anti-slavery Black Republicans would lead them to ruin if they didn't secede.
As for fighting Yankees, the former Senator from Mississippi who called the shots in 1861 had promised on Day One that he would start war if he thought Confederate "integrity" was "assailed".
And so it happened.