Slaves were a huge part of the Southern population. They were everywhere. In some states there were more slaves than free people.
Which is why, despite the South insisting slaves were subhuman and not deserving rights, still counted as 3/5ths of a human being for the census. That way the South was overrepresented in Congress.
Until Lincoln, not a single US President came from a non-slave state because of this. Lincoln was elected despite the fact that he was not even listed as a candidate in any slave state. That is when the South decided to quit and take their ball home.
I way I look at it is simple. Military bases are a godsend for a state. Virginia is literally recession proof from all the Federal largesse that streams in. And most states in the old Confederacy have substantial incomes from military bases. God help you if you even hint that we don’t need that many bases, they will scream from the rooftops to keep them open because of the jobs they provide.
Michigan? We don’t have anything to mention. An Air Force national guard base. Few hundred people stationed there.
And most Northern states are in similar disadvantages.
But what steams my clam even worse is when Southern States bag on Northern States for their higher unemployment because they don’t have bases and have the gall to put Confederate names on US Military bases and Confederate statues in their town squares. One minute you hear Southerners talking about real “Muricans” and the next they are polishing a Confederate Civil War Cannon and waving the Stars and Bars.
It doesn’t make sense. We are all Americans. The Confederacy lost.
The north was actually out producing the south in cotton when the war began. Slaves are horrible workers. It’s almost like they don’t want to be there.
You seem confused. The Civil War was the USA vs the CSA. The Democrats only existed in the USA. If you were a Democrat in the USA and but left the USA to join the CSA you were no longer a Democrat. I don’t think the CSA really did political parties.
You ask the wrong question entirely.
The issue is authoritarianism versus freedom.
what rights to the people of China have versus the state?
how about Russia versus the state.
how about Venezuela or Cuba.
If you were a commoner born in Europe in 1500 what rights did you have?
If you were bound to the land and therefore a landowner were you free?
slavery was common in the north for white settlers that earned their passage to the new world by pledging servitude for a period of years. After the term of their contract they were free to pursue their happiness.
The difference between tne north and the south was the ease of acquiring property in the north and have a small farm.
In the South land was owned primarily by large plantation owners.
although not called so in the day you had a very open economy in the north versus a state run economy by the elites in the south.
economically the lack of opportunity led to oppression and slavery of poor whites and blacks
I often wonder how long it would have lasted without the Civil War. If growing industrialization, innovation, and the abolition movement had continued changing the American landscape, would it have brought a natural end without the loss of life and the subsequent production of the rebel mentality in the south?
No, I don’t think so. I think slavery would exist today in the CSA had they been able to secure their independence.
Mainly, we have always had a thirst for exploited labor. Once slavery ended that thirst turned to Asians, children, convict leasing (look that one up, nasty business) and finally, once all of those could no longer be used, undocumented immigrants.
Which is why there is so much resistance for legalization, they want that population to remain intact so they can exploit them and abuse them. Don’t want to pay them? Don’t. What are they going to do? Go to the Police?
Second, it wasn’t just labor slaves were used for. Women and children were raped and abused, men were tortured and hobbled. If you make a few babies raping a slave, sell them for a tidy profit. There are some sick people out there who would have no problems keeping a system in place that would allow you to murder and rape to your hearts content because the people suffering from this aren’t considered human, but livestock.
I’m glad the north won. It preserved the nation and led to the 13th amendment.
