A friend of mine is attending college in Southern Mississippi. Apparently many at the college argue that since only 2% of landowners had slaves, that many Confederates felt that the North was attacking them and seizing land. She also argued that the soldiers themselves were unaware about the true nature of the conflict, and argued it was over the North “invading” the South. Which resulted in the classic “War of Northern Aggression” phrase being used in our conversation. Does this hold true to modern analysis of the conflict? Thank you.
More can be written, but just for the premise, the percentage of slave-owners, you might like to start with two of the previous discussions of the question:
'How financially privileged was slave ownership in America? Could a "middle class" American own slaves, or was this only reserved for the very elite? Do we have knowledge of what percentage of Americans owned one or more slaves?' by /u/sowser. This I mention for basic points and the dollars.
"How many Americans and Southerners owned slaves prior to the civil war?" by /u/jschooltiger. This I mention for basic points, the car analogy that clarifies a point, and links to further pages for those interested. In particular, I was struck by the last paragraph, which mentions "slaveholding families" and gives a census link for the per-state data.
For motivation, there's an FAQ section "Civil War / Confederacy", with "Was the average Confederate soldier a strong proponent of white supremacy?", an excellent pair of replies by /u/Georgy_K_Zhukov.
This is not to discourage discussion. More questions, data and debate are welcome.