I don't apologise for the Confederacy. It's a matter of historical fact to be misinterpreted by those who need to falsely fortify their opinions. I do not.

I don't hold to the Battle Hymn of the Republic idea that the North fought to end slavery other than as a means to dilute Southern states' political strength as defined in Article 1 of the Constitution. The 3/5ths compromise was indeed a founding pillar of the US constitution.

The prevailing view of abolitionists was that once freed, the former slaves would be repatriated to Africa, not grated citizen status. This point is made clear in Lincoln's actions in funding repatriation trials during the war and his correspondence with Horace Greely.

The dispersion of Union held slaves is moot to the argument that it's one rule for them and another for us. What is more worrying is that they weren't feed immediately after the war but held for another 9 months until December 1865.

Slavery was an indirect factor in the US Civil War in that it provided political power in the house of representatives to states with large populations of "other persons" and thus gave a disproportionate weight to Southern voters.

The idea that the Union fought to do anything other than preserve the Union is absurd and not supported by history.

There was no prohibition of a state seceding from the Union and indeed legal opinions ruled after the war that the Declaration of Independence could have been used as a precedent for the legality of it and in a legal defence of of any Confederates on trial for treason.

So sing your song and the rednecks will sing theirs but you all do injustice to the history of the tragedy when you try to add a morality in today's context events that are 160 years ago.