That is an interesting comment.
Every northern state, including the Keystone state, voted to enshrine slavery into the Constitution of the United States.
But the northern states did not enshrine slavery into the Constitution gratuitously: they had good reason. It was thought to be in their economic and political best self interest.
Only after some Southerners threatened "no Union" if they refused.
At the same time those Northerners were passing laws to abolish slavery in their own states.
jeffersondem: "But the northern states did not enshrine slavery into the Constitution gratuitously: they had good reason.
It was thought to be in their economic and political best self interest."
A typical Lost Cause Marxist explanation.
If you could go back to 1787 and ask them directly, here's what they'd say:
If you pressed them, saying, "but isn't it all just to line your own pockets with Federal money?" they might invite you to duel, or just remind you that of the 56 who signed the Declaration of Independence, over half lost their lives and/or fortunes as a result.
It would take the later "genius" of a Karl Marx combined with the bitterness of Lost Causers to see in all that mere "economic and political self-interest."