On the other side is the modern southern view that slavery had absolutely nothing to do with the Civil War and that anyone who mentions such a thing must be an uneducated liberal stooge. Indeed the south didn't even want slavery any more and further, the slaves that were there were happy and life was universally wonderful.
That isn't really the modern view. Anyone with the sense that God promised a rock knows that the issue of slavery was in the mix. What is being said is that for some states, especially those of the Upper South, it was not the PRIMARY issue. Revenue, tariffs, and states rights were the primary issues (and you can toss slavery into the states rights part if you like - the right of the States to determine if or how to free blacks).
I have NEVER seen anyone, except maybe liberal revisionists, say that Southerners make the claim that
"the slaves that were there were happy and life was universally wonderful
. Although some will state, and will be supported by documents such as Born In Slavery: The Slave Narratives, that most slaves were in general reasonably well cared for and reasonably happy. Many of the small slave holders, say with maybe a handful of slaves, treated them pretty much like family - all eating the same food at the same table, sleeping in the same house, and in many cases doing the same chores.
You can find a link to The Slave Narratives in one of the stickys here.
And here is a link to one of the fairly typical stories:
Tempe Herndon Durham "I was thirty-one years ole when de surrender come. Dat makes me sho nuff ole. Near bout a hundred an' three years done passed over dis here white head of mine." So, it would seem that not every white in the South had dozens of slaves that were beaten every day and fed only 2 oz. of parched corn a day and dressed in rags as many Northern apologists preach.
