i'm with warriorhunter... civil war was in no way over slavery and blacks and whites... after the colonies kicked out the british government they needed a new government and created the articles of confederation (hence confederate) which was a HIGHLY non-invasive government involving just the one party of government... and a sort of hands off type of government because the people were afraid that if they gave government officials too much power then it would be just like a king again... a second party was created in the north who believed that the government was not doing their job so they created a new one that was tougher on the states than the articles of confederation... the united states constitution came about to take more control of what was going on in the country and all states were made to join it EXCEPT the south because they believed that this government was too powerful and would deny human rights and tax the pants off of them... so they resigned from the union and president lincoln wanted them back and according to the constitution he could use the military to do that and so he did and then the war came about because of unfair occupation... a lot more happened after the civil war and the whole thing ruined the south as it used to be

and remember... while all of this was going on... some northerners still held on to their slaves... especially in the cities... the original AMERICAN CONSTITUTION still held that slavery was a legal practice at the time and every person enslaved (it wasn't just black people enslaved, it was native americans, even white americans and pretty much anyone that could be controlled) counted as 1/5 of a person READ IT