Correct! And thank you sir!
It would be difficult to support owning slaves. I don't agree with how Lincoln handled it all either. However, regardless of who won, I believe slavery would have died out. Frankly, because it just wasn't efficient. The North just figured it out sooner.
I've had some intense debates with a IRL close friend of mine who served in Afghanistan for 4 years pre and post 9/11, and he grew up in the mountains of NC so hes a good ole boy and not a big fan of Lincoln.
He'd always say that "it would have happened eventually", meaning slavery ending. But you can wiki the nations and states who abolished it entirely, and to say that United States as a nation was extremely late to the party would be an understatement.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Timeline_of_abolition_of_slavery_and_serfdom
England abolished it in 1706. Russia in 1723. Ofcourse you know that the state of Massachusetts, with John Adam's help, abolishes it in 1783.
Countries like Haiti, Chile, Greece, etc. abolished it's practice before America did nationally. Hell, it wasn't until the Missouri compromise in 1820 that banned slavery in the north.
And you're telling me slavery would have ended eventually? It took a civil war in *1860* to viciously and bloodily end the institution.
If the Civil War never happened, then when does it end? 1870? 1880? We know better than that. It wouldn't have been, optimistically speaking, until the 1900s that the south would have actually caved into anti-slavery laws, and that would only be due to technological advancements and international pressure.
That being said, we would more than likely be much farther behind socially if the South would have won. So, from that perspective, it was better that the North won.
That doesn't mean that someone can't be proud of things that the Confederacy stood for. Slavery always takes center stage, but I have to admire the fact that they stood up for what they believed in and how valiant they fought in battle. The guys who did the fighting on both sides believed in their causes and they were willing to die for them.
I can always respect someone for fighting for what they believe in, but that's where the respect ends if I so grievously disagree with what they believe in.
Hard work, self respect, family values? That's not what I mean, obviously. But I always respected John Adams the most in these situations. He was never known as the liberal one - TJ took that mantle from him - but he was the only forefather who actively refused to own slaves. Not because he was anti-slavery (which he was, he publicly abhorred it, and actually believe we could mingle with eachother without problems) but because he believed any man who had the means, will and resources to own a farm, should be out there with his own two hands, sowing the earth himself. He paid every single individual to help him, to the point of almost near financial collapse. But he refused slavery, and he should be respected more in these modern days for that.
That is to ignore that he originally thought the President should be more kingly, to which Washington opened his eyes to see otherwise.
If you read memoirs and diaries, rarely do you hear anything about slavery. The Union soldiers fought to preserve the Union and the Confederate soldiers perceived it as a second revolution. They wanted freedom from an oppressive government. The vast majority of the soldiers didn't and never did own slaves, so they really didn't care about it.
The oppressive government, indeed. The soldiers, and most individuals really, weren't slave owners. I think it's SC (at 50% ownership) and afew other southern states that break 25% ownership statewide. To own a slave meant you were rich, and there were less of them than there are today.
I have more respect for the true abolitionists of the day, though. The ones who truly believed in equal rights, waaaaay before it was politically or otherwise popular to say so. To Jefferson's credit, he really did try to sneak that into the constitution - he felt he was a total hypocrite to write "All men are created equal" with a pen in one hand and a whip in the other, but alas, South Carolina refused to become American if he did.