On Racism and the Confederate South

My view of the Confederacy comes mainly from my knowledge the history of the revolution.

The Confederate conversation has four distinct parts: Secession, nullification, slavery, and racism.

The south absolutely had rights for secession and nullification. These rights were trampled by Lincoln who chose to start a war for power, not a moral opposition to slavery.

Slavery was already on the way out. Importation was outlawed in 1808 and most states had made the practice illegal at the state level before the Civil War started.

The Emancipation Proclamation was a military maneuver which didn't free a single slave. The 13th amendment officially federally ended slavery, but in practice it only affected about 40,000 individuals.

All that being said, racism is a clear issue in American history. However, I don't think it's a widespread modern issue. It does pop up in various places, but it hardly seems to be a uniquely southern or confederate-area issue.

I would add that Lincoln was a Republican and racist policies were generally defended and propagated by Democrats who continued to defend racist policies like Jim Crow, abortion, minimum wage, <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Reverse_discrimination">affirmative action, and so on long after the 13th amendment was passed and even until today.