Misunderstood

The Civil War was not a war over slavery or secession... it was economics. the southern states could make more money exporting raw materials to Europe and the Islands rather than the northern industrial monopolies; who then had to import them. northern industrialists wanted those raw materials for pennies. the industrial north had it's own form of slavery; Irish and Italian immigrants who were working for pennies and living in slums. a cost analysis of labor done in the 1850's showed it was far more expensive to own slaves and keep them healthy than it was to "enslave" immigrant workers; pouring into NYC at that time, who couldn't even afford to survive. this cost ratio of return on capital was why slavery in the south was on it's way out. plantation owners knew they could share crop white and black workers for less money. only 10-12% of these people actually owned slaves. it's extremely naive of people, north or south, to think tens of thousands of men died so 10% of the southern elite could own slaves!!! another economic tidbit is that the north was in recession because of those immigrants. they were more than willing to earn a paycheck in the US army than endure the horror of labor in those industrial prisons.