How could that possibly be construed as Confederate sympathy? I’m sorry, I know you mean to be on the right side of an argument, but in what way is saying “southern states did not see slaves as people” even remotely sympathetic to them?

There is importance in the level of detail being presented. This is what the phrase “those who forget history are doomed to repeat it” refers to. When we gloss over all nuance to the point that discourse becomes “this side good, that side bad,” then we no longer have a portrait of how that came to be. Without such understanding, we lose the ability to prevent, and our sole recourse becomes reaction.

Pointing out that the southern states legitimately thought of slaves as less than human, mere property that should be returned via the force of the federal government when northern states would not comply, does nothing at all to make them seem any less monstrous. Instead, it shines another light on the inherent fascism of their stance - “Do as we say, or we will make you.” When that failed, they threatened and ultimately attempted secession in a bid to form their own government.

The South did not want freedom. They wanted compliance. They wanted to dictate. They wanted control over someone else’s body to be instituted at the federal level. Do the parallels to modern right-wing neofascist rhetoric need more emphasis?

Likewise, being cognizant that the North was content to turn a bind eye until the Union was threatened in no way excuses the South’s stance on slavery. What it does, though, is emphasize how complacency and compromise with bad actors until it’s too late is often a far too easy path to take.

There’s much more that can be said, but I’m going astray of the topic at hand. At no point in the chain of comments was @[email protected] or anyone else presenting a favorable or defensive view of the failed Confederacy. To suggest otherwise is disingenuous and outright vile.