Reply #206: Admirably expressed. Points well taken. I do think you would

[coalition_unwilling]

enjoy Nolan's book. It's well written and argued.

Even without the war, I believe we would have seen more John Brown and Nat Turner type acts of resistance. Abolitionism was still a minority position among Northerners in 1860 but John Brown's raid at Harper's Ferry, his trial, conviction and subsequent execution crystallized the matter for Northerners in a way that town meetings could not and made it far more difficult for Northerners to remain fence sitters about the peculiar instiution and its morality or lack thereof.

On edit: humorous little side-note. Turns out that most of these Confederate apologists were already on my Ignore list, so I'm only able to see "Ignored" every other post and to extrapolate what its contents are from what comes after it.