The proponents of the American Civil War, those slave owners in the South and their allies, greatest achievement was making the rest of the South - most of which were not slave holders - think that they would be fighting and dying for something much greater than that powerful institution of permanent torture: slavery.
Those proponents mixed the emotion and sense of home, the southeastern portion of America that became the South, with regional nationalism - a misnomer which may seem contradictory but it is not - to create and enduring state of mind. The South had - and still has for many - a nationalism unto itself. Now over 200 years old, that emotional perspective and the reality that stems from that perception is both a bulwark to change and a steady resource for those that exploit it today.
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