Re: The threat of secession
It has been said on this board before, but bears repeating. The vast majority of Negroes lived in the South; that was their home; they were Southerners. The slaves yearned for freedom, but not in Canada and certainly not in the Northern states that outlawed their immigration. The War was not necessary to end slavery and racial integration was made immensely more difficult by the vengeful politics of Reconstruction. If not for these stupid interventions, there could have been an orderly shift for black people to assimilate into white mainstream society, as they did in Europe. It would have been very difficult and often unfair, but it would not have taken a hundred years.