I agree with InterestedObserver. I think my own feelings about which side I would have supported at the time would have had everything to do with where my ass was situated. And I think I could have supported the south while still not supporting slavery–slavery was only the particular issue that raised the larger issue that the war was about. I could have fought for the south to secede and then fought to end slavery in the south if I were successful.
Know who else had black family members in the Jeffersonian sense?
The way it actually occurred, I voted for the north. If there had not been any type of slavery, I would have been on the side of the south. I like states rights and am unimpressed by rampant federalism. However, accepting the unchecked growth of federalism in exchange for beginning the demise of slavery is a choice I would make every time.
Shagnasty, this is not an attack, but consider . . .
Back when you were living in Georgia, what did you think of Yankees who moved there, ‘got twitchy’ around the locals, and complained about how much better the society and the people were back north?
–
I mean, seriously. Massachusetts gave the world the chocolate chip cookie. And Wonder Woman. I think a little respect is in order.
Not true. The states bailed out in order to protect what they saw as a threat to slavery. When South Carolina seceded one of their main complaints (which they put in writing) was about states rights - and they were against it. They felt the United States government was wrong because it allowed states to set their own policy on slavery. They wanted a national government that would compel all states to have slavery.
During the war there were some Copperheads in the north who talked about having northern states secede from the United States (their hopes were admittedly unrealistic). They traveled to the Confederacy and spoke with government officials there about the possibility of joining the Confederacy. They were told that it didn’t matter what their positions were on issues like states rights or secession - no state that didn’t have slavery they would be allowed to join the CSA.
Someone pointed out above that there were slave states that stayed in the United States. That’s true. But what wasn’t mentioned was that in all of these states, slave owners did not form a majority of the state government. In every one of the border states, the slave owners in the government wanted to secede and join the CSA. But the non-slave owners in the government outvoted them and stayed with the United States.
Slavery really was the cornerstone.
I find the fact that 14 people voted for the confederacy on this message board to be incredibly depressing.
Peeta Mellark, I’d like to agree with you and note that not only did abhorrent processes like slave breeding exist and were widespread, one of their primary purposes was to produce more slaves for sale. These slaveholders were not breeding slaves to work their own plantations, but breeding them to sell to other slaveholders whose slave populations tended not to increase. This means that the plantations were so abusive toward their slaves, in beatings, overwork, and malnutrition, that many or most slaves died without reproducing. Children were born for the express purpose of being sold away from their parents.
Less dramatically, the other difference between chattel slavery as practiced in the American South and wage slavery* is that a wage slave can quit if the job is really that bad.
This is not what happens with immigrants to the United States today, except in rare and extremely illegal circumstances that we denounce and try to prevent. Comparing the existence of a house slave to a servant today isn’t valid.
*I’m not a big fan of this term, but it seems close to what you’re suggesting.
Depressing but expected, for me.
Yeah, and the man who raped and impregnated my great-great grandmother could have said the same thing.
There has been some very close interaction in the past and there continues to be. That doesn’t excuse the institution of slavery, though. I don’t walk around feeling guilty over it and I don’t like when Yankees condemn the South as a whole. But that still doesn’t mean the Confederates were right or worthy of support.
Let’s say you could push a button and two things would happen: (1) There never would have been (and won’t currently be) slavery anywhere in the world (but everything now would otherwise remain the same) and (2) every child currently living on earth would die. Would you push the button?
The point is that there are other things to consider than “OMG SLAVERY=BAD!!!” It’s perfectly possible for a person to have supported the Confederacy and hated slavery.
On the Northern side, you expand that their aim was perhaps more to preserve the Union than it was about slavery – at least, that would have been Priority Numero Uno. But this whole, “Noble States Rights” bullshit? That’s exactly what it is. Some of you don’t know nuthin’ bout learnin’ no history. 
[sub]Mods, please, that’s a joke, it’s NOT meant to be an insult, I’m sure most of you will recognize the reference[/sub]
And to expand upon my place, even that far back, Pittsburgh was a large industrial center, producing coal and iron ore, etc, and our three rivers for transportation gave us a huge advantage. We were a huge supplier for the U.S. military, and I doubt PA would have had a better deal going with the CSA.
As a loyal “yinzer”, I can’t imagine going with the south. 
I probably would have been a Copperhead. Fuck those pig-headed Southerners, Fuck slavery, but ten times more than that fuck the War. Let the South go, and in ten years they’ll be at each other’s throats, begging to be let back into the Union and more than willing to free their slaves for the price of readmission. Let them think they freed them themselves, out of Southern Chivalry, so they won’t start lynching them for the next 90 years.
USA, no question.
I have a “mixed” ancestry, in that my father’s family were New Yorkers (until my grandfather and his brother moved out to California in the very early 1900s), while my mother’s family are from Arkansas. So I can’t say I’d choose based on where my ancestors lived. My great-great grandfather fought at Gettysburg with the New York regiment. My other ancestor on my mother’s side deserted from the Confederate army early on in the war, as did at least one of his brothers (I found the roster online in which they were listed as deserters.) I don’t know why they deserted; it was early in the war, 1862 as I recall and only maybe six months after they enlisted. This was before the South started suffering serious reverses. I guess it just wasn’t for them. Dunno, maybe coming from the fringes of the Confederacy and not even owning any slaves had something to do with it. I’m glad my ancestor did not get executed for desertion, because my next-generation ancestor was not born until after the war.
As this article points out much of the “rampant growth of federalism” was instituted by the South during the American Civil War who did a lot what Southern apologists accuse Lincoln of doing: http://www.trinityfoundation.org/journal.php?id=256
Well, if we’re going by ancestors, none of mine were here yet – they wouldn’t start coming over for another ten years or so. (Until the revolutions started in Germany)
Hear, hear
I’m an abolitionist, so I voted for the Union
Without a trial?
Yes, but did you see my caveat?
Knowing what I know today, as an enlightened, 21st century person, I would surely support the Union.
At the time, assuming I was born into the family I have, in the place that they lived, I would most assuredly have backed the CSA. My father, my brothers (if I had any), my uncles, grandfathers, cousins - all would have been CSA soilders. The Union would have occupied my family home. There would have been a battle on my front doorstep. The house itself would have been saved (barely), but others would have been burned to their chimneys.
Is this right and proper in defense of slavery? No, of course not. I didn’t vote to defend slavery. The question was asked, but it didn’t clarify today or at the time. At the time, I would have backed my family from the depth of the only worldview I would have ever known.
So, no, I don’t find it depressing. I find Shagnasty’s take on it depressing.
Of course with my current knowledge and hindsight I would support the USA, as would almost anyone.
Assuming I grew up at that time? Of course I would support my state (Virginia), as would almost everyone. My state would have been my sovereign for most purposes and, if they called for solders I would have probably answered, if only for the adventure. Remember that I would have had maybe a third grade education, would have never traveled more than 100 miles from my home (if that), would have almost zero knowledge about the wider world and would have had to toil daily to for my food and shelter. Even if I didn’t own slaves or even like the concept, the idea of freeing millions of slaves with no education of any kind, no possessions and no place to go would have been chilling. I would have wanted to put the question of slavery off on the next generation.
Most people of the time didn’t have the internet, or even CNN(!), and didn’t follow the all the politics and debate over slavery. It was us against them.