Reply #39: And I suggest you read something other than a second-grade

[Clark2008]

history book that drills things down into simple black and white.

It was NOT just about slavery. Most people who fought for the South did not and could not own slaves.

It was about agrarian interests in the South versus the industrialization of the North. It was about each state having the right to make laws for its people without the federal government butting in. It was about a LOT of things and slavery was a very minor point.

Think about it: black people in this country did not really - in the North and in the South - get equal rights until the 1960s' Civil Rights movement, a full 100 years after the Civil War. In fact, I dare say, that the South is LESS racist in many aspects because A.) We've dealt with this issue in a much more open and, regrettably, violent fashion than the North and B.) We simply have many more black people here. We actually are MORE integrated than most of the North and certainly the mid-West.

I'm not alleging you're ignorant - it's just that our history books in the country don't really delve into the real backbone of this most important war. I'm not ignoring the fact that slavery was an issue, but, for the thousands of men who fought for the Confederacy, it was about states' rights. Most of these guys didn't have two pennies to scratch together, much less own slaves.