I’m pointing out to begin with: I am not American. I live in another hemisphere altogether (specifically in Israel), and this was not a topic covered in history classes over here. It’s just something I’ve been curious about.

So, I came across the argument that the claim that the war was fought over state rights was not true, as the declarations of secession by the seceding states explicitly stated it was because of race, and they actually tried to block the right of free states to protect runaway slaves (can’t recall the specifics), and one such declaration even derided the notion of state rights. However, considering that owning slaves was only affordable to a minority of Southerners, I find it strange that common soldiers decided to make it their hill to die on.

So what was their motivation? Because I’m getting the impression that when people discuss what the war was ‘about’, they don’t realize they’re talking about what it was ‘about’ for two very different subsets of the population.