This. There was no righteous side in the civil war.The long and short of the American Civil War is that it was fought over slavery and a lot of things were missed by the leadership of both sides of the issue which resulted in the terrible conflict. What was a slave in 1850? To abolitionists a slave was a human being in amoral bondage.To slave owners a slave was an asset, a piece of agricultural machinery.
For a moment lets go back to that time when the bad decisions are being made. The big money in the southern states knows that most of the slaves are owned by a smaller group of the population so not everybody is getting the benefits. In the event of secession it's going to be a hard sell to small farmers in the south to take the bad that's coming just to keep the rich guys rich or make them richer. The leadership changes the narrative from the slavery question to one of states rights first, slavery as a secondary issue. Southern economic leadership has now linked the two issues and the next move should be to separate them again. A federal plan to bring economic development to the southern states, turn that cotton into clothes in factories in Dixie, rather than sell it to Europe. Abolish slavery and provide some compensation for the loss to their owners. That's an expensive move and on the surface would seem to reward an amoral activity but you have to compare it to what's coming with secession.
Everybody loses in the civil war, and they are all Americans. American leadership is supposed to look out for the general welfare of the people it represents and this was a colossal failure. Winfield Scott advised that imposing abolition on the southern states would be long, costly and bloody, he was the best military mind in the US of the time. What was the better decision?
When we consider secession I think it's best to know why and what it's worth. We were all Americans back in the 1850s, just like today.