> It is not correct to frame the moral issue of slavery as the only reason for the war, because it had enormous economic and political implications beyond its m

> It is not correct to frame the moral issue of slavery as the only reason for the war, because it had enormous economic and political implications beyond its morality. I saw an article that said that by the mid-1800's, the southern states that seceded accounted for half the GDP of the entire US, and slave labour accounted for a majority of that. Abolishing slavery would cripple and impoverish those states, so of course they had to secede. From an economical-political perspective it was the only possible choice. Imagine that the federal US wanted to prohibit people in California from working with software or media. No more Silicon Valley, no more Hollywood. California would secede in a heartbeat, and every single HN reader living there would strongly support it. Threaten people's way of life, and they'll get kinda angry, regardless of morality. It's also important to realize that since the southern states were so dependent on slavery, and since people actually have a natural aversion to it, that there existed a system of constant brutal racist propaganda to protect itself. That propaganda was everywhere, it was scientific: Clearly, black people are better suited at working in the sun, cotton requires work in the sun, therefore it is the natural order of things that black people should work the cottonfields. Religious: God rewards the people he loves with prosperity, white plantation owners are the most prosperous, therefore God clearly loves this order of things and wills it so. Political: White nations originating in Europe have subjugated black nations in Africa, and since might makes right, black people from Africa are clearly better off as slaves in America, it's a more civilized life, and therefore the best order of things. Racism and slavery was simply woven into the fabric of society in a way that's very difficult to imagine today, which is why the reductionism is so misguided. Not being racist or not profiting off of slavery was simply not an option for people living there.