How much Was The Civil War About The Emancipation Of Slaves?

How much Was The Civil War About The Emancipation Of Slaves?
kinda depends on who you would have talked to back then. The wealthier southerners were fighting partly to preserve slavery. The poor white southerners who made up most of the army certainly weren't fighting to preserve plantation style slavery, as they despised the plantation owners as elitist poofs with delusions of grandeur. However, they didn't bear any goodwill to the slaves either, and were more than happy to keep them downtrodden. Among the northerners, there were indeed a minority of soldiers who fought mainly to free the slaves. The vast majority though fought to preserve the union. 'Freeing the slaves' was more of a goal for non-combatant northerners rather than the main goal of the Union army and it's commanders, and even they were way outnumbered by those who wanted to preserve the Union first and foremost.
IMO, the main reason behind the ACW was that the two sides had spent decades demonizing each other, and when push came to shove, both sides believed all the nasty rumors told about the other...
 
While the Civil War was primarily (even overwhelmingly) about slavery, it was only partially about the emancipation of slaves.
 
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