There has been much recent discussion about the confederate battle flag And what it stands for Part of that discussion has pointed out that confederates were not really fighting for slavery... Mostly In pursuit of this question, i found the following non partisan article from britannica. It is long, and would be crass to summarize in a few words. So read it if you want http://blogs.britannica.com/2011/07/volunteers-blue-gray-fought/ I would say it does offer support for the non slavery motivation view And in fact, presents rebels as fearing to be enslaved by the north Interesting partly for the irony of being slave states already But also, it seems the enslavement they feared.... Was an illusion Over all, it seems both sides were pretty idealistically motivated And i gotta say, both sides more or less fought from what seems to me to be delusions about some greater purpose. As so often happens, once the path to war was chosen, the soldiers fought for duty, honor, country, and comrades. So, the soldiers wound up fighting because of what their leaders did and decided... So, ino, while it is true that the common rebel was not fighting for slavery... They were still fighting because they were led into war. And i still think that the primary reasons for that decision was the issue of slavery . ,
I work in the UK often (I switch between the US and UK as I'm needed). It's interesting to compare the history of North and South with Scotland and England. Of course, they are not the same - but there is a general common theme of resisting a union, not wanting to bow, keeping autonomy and all that.
The funny thing about the South not wanting to bow and keep their autonomy, it makes them hypocrites for their support of slavery. They really had no moral high ground to stand on.
The biggest question was why did Lincoln put so much effort to "preserve the Union" in the first 2 years of the Civil war and introduced the abolishment of slavery after those 1st two years? A rallying of the troops and the Northerners?
