re: #321 windsagio

Its not true.

The Southern cotton plantations and a good part of the rest of the economy and social structures were dependent upon slavery for their economic viability. In this sense, the South was built on a foundation of inhumanity and evil.
The South wanted to form their own nation where they could happily continue with this lucrative and exploitative system.
The North was not prepared to allow the South to secede from the Union, and the North was also abolitionist.
It would be interesting to know what Lincoln’s reaction might have been if the South had proposed, for example, to abandon their secessionist goals in exchange for being allowed to keep the agricultural slaves while giving freedom to the non-agricultural slaves.
If one concedes that such a deal might have been entertained, then it is difficult to maintain that the war was not primarily about economics.