I learned that the Civil War was about "economic issues," meaning protective tariffs and industrial v. agricultural production. And states' rights, of course.

Conveniently omitted: Slavery was the backbone of that agricultural economy. Where I live we still have brick streets that were laid by slaves, and they handle light residential vehicle traffic NP.

The planters saw that fight coming long before it started. When abolitionism started taking hold years earlier, they were afraid that the tentant-farming whites who were too poor to own slaves would throw in with the slaves. So they paid circuit-riders from one end of the South to the other and had them preach sermons about how the Bible says only white people are human, and supporting it with some readings from the OT that I forget. It's easy to forget that it was a religious war, too.