Yes, you and Evelyn are both right Penny. As much as we don't want it to be, slavery was a part of the darn issue. It was not the reason given by the Southern states but to keep the states economics systems viable, there had to be slaves at that point in time. I do believe that it wouldn't have been all that long before it went away due to the machine age. It was an integral part of the way of life but in all honesty, it was for the right to make decisions on the state level for the state and not having a federal taskmaster. In the beginning, I believe the Federal 'job' for the US was defense, protection, treasury, law concerning matters outside of a individual state jurisdiction, international relations and a couple of others I can't remember right now.
Problem was, the North was having a hard time on the battlefield in the beginning and that made a few 'brains' really amp up slavery as the one reason they had to continue to invade our territory.
Pam