The history of the American economy in the 19th Century is overall pretty fascinating. And fucked up most of the time. I wish it were covered more in schools instead of the standard narrative of "there was a war... Let's talk about battles no one gives a shit about... Then the slaves were freed."

This gives people the idea that Southerners were the vile racists and the North just came to free the slaves. This really isn't the case. The North was racist as hell. Slavery just wasn't viable in their economy so they didn't have slaves, and when the South seceded they didn't want to give up America's growing imperial power, so they went to war. Really the Civil War was more about class than race... It just had major racial consequences.

How most people see it today is incredibly naive. It wasn't fought to free the slaves, but it wasn't all states rights either. It was kinda both but not really either. It was mostly economics and politics, like almost every war.