"Quote all the statistics you want"

I agree with you to hell with stats after all you are the fellow who says "I don't care waht the North said or did."

"the freeing of, and equalizing the slaves with the rest of the southern folk."

Actually the North wasn't trying to free any slaves or make them equal either. Heck no need to post any stats on the number of abolitionist groups in the South or the number of times a Southern state tried to emancipate slaves. They crap is just stats.

“Was Secession talk as prevalent BEFORE the John Brown raid? Not from what I have read”

Try this site
http://www.secessionist.us/south_carolina.htm

"Also…”owners of slaves were mobbed and even murdered in open day solely for applying to a magistrate for the arrest of a fugitive slave;"

So slavery was legal heck even blacks owned slaves. Isn’t murder a crime, even if the victim is a slave owner? When did they lose their rights for protection under the laws of the US?

"Viable grievances, no doubt, that eventually caused a domino effect with states following each other out of the union, when things escaladed."

When Lincoln called for troops is the point of escalation

"No one comes out looking great in all this mess."

Actually if the truth was told the South would look pretty darn good.

GP