Originally Posted by scout

To take a very dark time in the history of the United States and in a time when most white people, Yankees included, despised and thought black people was a bit less than human and "boil it down" to a war 99% about slavery is a bit shallow wouldn't you agree? Especially since, as someone stated earlier, slavery was on it's way out anyway. Surely a war in such a time as this, one that pitted brother against brother, would be about about something a little more important to the people of that time. As it stated earlier, most Confederate soldiers of that time did not own slaves. In fact very very few Southerners of that time owned slaves. Only the wealthiest could afford them. In fact, most Southerners at that time were either small landowners that farmed the land themselves or were sharecroppers. Sharecroppers, in case you aren't familiar with the term, is but a tiny step above being a slave. Only a few minor but important differences separated the lives of the sharecroppers and that of the slaves. So to suggest that a few hundred thousand of what was considered white trash by the slave owners went out and died to preserve the lifestyle of a few thousand rich white slave owners is pretty preposterous wouldn't you agree?