I've always found it more than slightly ironic that other countries traded with the US up until 1861 though it was a slave state, and continued trading with it after 1865 when it was still a de facto slave state (and remained so up until 1945-6), but somehow people believe that no-one would trade with the Confederacy between 1861 and 1865 simply because it was a slave state.
As a reference I direct your attention to Slavery by Another Name by Douglas Blackmon, which describes the system put in place in the Southern states after the Civil War, where black people were arrested on trumped-up charges, convicted by all-white judges and juries, and then sold to mines, factories and farms. In many ways the victims of this system were worse off than they had been before the war, because if someone actually owns a slave they have an interest in keeping that slave fit to work, whereas in the later system it didn't matter if the black person died: you could always arrest another one... The treatment meted out to those unfortunate enough to be ensnared in this institution included the time-honoured American pastime of 'water-boarding'.
Besides the large numbers of people actually caught up in this new form of slavery, many more were so intimidated that they signed onerous labour contracts, which again reduced them effectively to slaves.
As a reference I direct your attention to Slavery by Another Name by Douglas Blackmon, which describes the system put in place in the Southern states after the Civil War, where black people were arrested on trumped-up charges, convicted by all-white judges and juries, and then sold to mines, factories and farms. In many ways the victims of this system were worse off than they had been before the war, because if someone actually owns a slave they have an interest in keeping that slave fit to work, whereas in the later system it didn't matter if the black person died: you could always arrest another one... The treatment meted out to those unfortunate enough to be ensnared in this institution included the time-honoured American pastime of 'water-boarding'.
Besides the large numbers of people actually caught up in this new form of slavery, many more were so intimidated that they signed onerous labour contracts, which again reduced them effectively to slaves.