For the record, I'm a huge fan of Lincoln and his policies but for the sake of historical accuracy...

I took Wilhelm's advice and read all of the (very long, sheesh) declarations of secession. At the most basic level, it appears that the war was fought by the Northern states to preserve the union, and fought by the Southern states to protect themselves from the North after having exercised their right to secede from the Union.

Now if you dig a little deeper into the motivations behind the South's decision to secede from the union (read the declarations of secession), you find that the majority of the reasons stated that the sou...

For the record, I'm a huge fan of Lincoln and his policies but for the sake of historical accuracy...

I took Wilhelm's advice and read all of the (very long, sheesh) declarations of secession. At the most basic level, it appears that the war was fought by the Northern states to preserve the union, and fought by the Southern states to protect themselves from the North after having exercised their right to secede from the Union.

Now if you dig a little deeper into the motivations behind the South's decision to secede from the union (read the declarations of secession), you find that the majority of the reasons stated that the southern states seceded because the federal government failed to uphold the constitution (in regard to state rights) over and over again. The declarations do complain of new territories being denied slave holding rights (keep in mind that the South saw slaves as property), but never indicate that the federal government mandated that the slave holding states had to free their slaves.

I think though, that the clipped video is more about the motives of the individuals who fought in the war and how they viewed (and how some today may view) the confederate flag, and less about the motives of the state governments. The question of whether the southern people believed they were fighting for the right to keep slaves isn't addressed in the declarations of secession.

Given that most of the Southern people did not hold slaves, I suspect that most people in the South were simply fighting to protect their homes and family from the invading North.