Exactly Zaph, I was born and raised in the south. I've spent my entire life here. Am I proud of my southern heritage? Yes, but for the reasons we are known for our hospitality and kindness, not by any means because at one point in time slavery was rampant in the south. Do I think that in time slavery would have ended in the south, regardless? Yes. I'd like to think that at some time common decency and human nature would have taken over.
But looking at it from a southern perspective, the souths economy was based pretty much solely on cotton. It took slavery to make cotton profitable in the time before mechanization. And if you read more than the history books that are issued in school, the north was imposing taxes on the south on the exportation of cotton. Taxes and tariffs. The south could get almost double what the northern industries were willing to pay for cotton if they sold it to England and other overseas countries. But because of the tariffs that were imposed, it wasn't profitable. So actually, the Civil War was started for the exact same reason the Revolutionary War was, unfair taxation, without proper representation.