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* Did a state prior to the Civil War have a right to leave the Union?

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* Was the reason for the war "State's Rights" or "Slavery"?

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Did a colony have the right renounce the authority of the Crown and Parliament and to leave the Empire?

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State's rights with slavery as the catalyst. I'm not at home now so I can't check but didn't Lincoln say something along the lines of "If I could save the Union by freeing all the slaves I would do it, if I could save the Uniuon by freeing none of the slaves, I would do it and if I could save the Union by freeing some slaves and leavings others as they are I would do it" Which seems to imply that the welfare of African Americans wasn't exactly at the top of the US govts agenda.

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The Confederate states were motivated by what they saw as a growing movement in the North to end slavery. This included declarations in states such as Massachussets that slavery was unConstitutional.

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Yeah, I know; just cos I'm notAmerican doesn't mean I don't know anything about the American Civil war . The Confederates were particularly worried by the Federal government limiting the spread of slavery by the Missouri compromise and other measures.

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Yes, that is a Lincoln quote

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The Confederate states were motivated by what they saw as a growing movement in the North to end slavery. This included declarations in states such as Massachussets that slavery was unConstitutional.

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Yeah, I know; just cos I'm notAmerican doesn't mean I don't know anything about the American Civil war . The Confederates were particularly worried by the Federal government limiting the spread of slavery by the Missouri compromise and other measures.

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Yes, that is a Lincoln quote

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Originally posted by Snay:
The Confederate states were motivated by what they saw as a growing movement in the North to end slavery. This included declarations in states such as Massachussets that slavery was unConstitutional.

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Well, that's the funny thing -- approaching the issue from both directions can be considered correct. And I guess that's part of the reason why the American Civil War is such a contested issue even today.

I can point out a number of converging issues that caused the actual confict:

� The vast majority (and I do mean vast) of Southern wealth was holed up in the form of slaves by the late 1850's. I attended a lecture by Dr. James Horton a couple of weeks ago... I don't have an exact figure, but the value of the slaves, both in terms of purchase price (at the auction, for example) and in terms of labor value and output in the Old South, actually exceeded the wealth of the North. Freeing the slaves meant a huge financial loss for the South as a whole.

� In the Federal government, the Old South was the central power, especially in Congress, from the very beginning. Washington, Adams, Jefferson, Madison, Monroe... is it any coincidence that four of the first five Presidents were Southerners? Even into the 1850's, the South controlled the vast majority of the Senate.

But... with the growing anti-slavery movement, the so-called "free" states were increasingly outnumbering the slave states. Any American student should know about the Missouri Compromise of 1820, keeping a precise and equal balance of slave and free states up until 1850, when California was admitted.

The South was increasingly marginalized, both in terms of population (outnumbered by Northerners) and in political power.

� A lot of people forget (or gloss over) the Dred Scott decision of 1858. Supreme Court Chief Justice Roger Taney was a Southerner (South Carolina, I think, though I could be wrong). If one single event outside of the actual firing of shots could be considered a cause of the war, it'd be this decision -- mainly because the Court's ruling made it an all-or-nothing deal. Basically, Taney ruled that the Federal government could not limit slavery AT ALL, anywhere in the country, because a man could not be denied his property. Of course, it was a blatantly racist argument that completely infuriated the Abolitionists and many Northern states... basically, rather than glossing over the issue or continuing a compromise, the Dred Scott decision forced a conflict then and there.

� Did anyone know that the United States was one of only THREE COUNTRIES IN THE ENTIRE WORLD in which slavery was legal in 1863? I'm not sure which were the last two, but even Russia -- Tsarist Russia, for cryin' out loud! -- had abolished slavery in 1861.

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I could go on rambling for hours on this stuff, but I'd better stop before I get carried away.

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“Those people who think they know everything are a great annoyance to those of us who do.” — Isaac Asimov
Star Trek Minutiae | Memory Alpha

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Did anyone know that the United States was one of only THREE COUNTRIES IN THE ENTIRE WORLD in which slavery was legal in 1863? I'm not sure which were the last two, but even Russia -- Tsarist Russia, for cryin' out loud! -- had abolished slavery in 1861.

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WRIGHTSVILLE, Ga. -- Students at a central Georgia high school held separate proms for whites and blacks this year, maintaining a dying practice in the rural South.

"It's always been like that," said Carla Rachels, 17, a Johnson County High School senior who helped organize Friday night's whites-only prom. "We don't see it as a big deal." Parents paid for the separate proms.

Taylor County, another rural area 90 miles west of Wrightsville, held an integrated prom last year, but added a separate whites-only prom this year.

After integration in the late 1960s, separate proms were common in the rural South, but Johnson and Taylor counties are among the last to cling to the practice.

Johnson County native and former professional football star Herschel Walker urged an end to segregated proms.

"Today I wish things would change a little bit," said Walker, who visited last week when the high school football field was named in his honor. "This world is changing so much. Coming after the war we just had, I think people can see we are a country, we are together."

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