“It was about slavery.”
If the South was fighting for slavery, who was fighting against slavery?
The south had been worried about the abolition of slavery since the declaration of independence then the constitutional convention.
Starting in the 1820’s after the Louisiana purchase the south was worried there would be more free states than slave states.
In the book about the plot to kill Lincoln at the train station in Baltimore on his way to the first inauguration, the plotters cited anti-slavery as their motivation. It’s in the book and an undercoverPinkerton witnessed the conspiracy develop.
Wilkes booth was mad at Lincoln for “freeing the slaves.”
The south’s economy was tied to trade and slaves providing very cheap labor. the opening of the west was now threatening the balance of free and slave states. to say the south was defending slavery is clearly wrong. it is an attempt by modern day apologists to justify the deaths their traitorous immoral ancestors caused.
It doesn’t matter what the north was fighting for. There was an abolitionist movement in the north and the congress was intent on more free slaves.
So, the south fought for slavery and trade and the north to keep them in. That; the same as against slavery.