Slavery in the South could not have flourished without help from the North. The deeply religious Mass Bay colony built the first American slave ship. Liberal Rhode Island sponsored thousands of trans-Atlantic slave expeditions.

I never knew that - watching documentary "Emancipation Road". How did deeply religious (Christian) Europe & its colonies condone profit driven capture, sale and oppression of Africans? Also never knew Georgia was initially anti-slavery only to later legalize it.

Indentured servitude was common in European artisanal trades but in US, cash crop industries benefited more from unskilled free labor than skilled apprenticeships of traditional indentured servitude. Laws later allowed indentured servants who eloped to be sentenced to slavery.

Slavery was eventually made hereditary by state statute. Physical force against and coercion of slaves was later legalized. Tobacco. Rice. Cotton. These are just a few examples of cash crops, the profitable production of which relied upon slavery.

When abolitionists began decrying the evils of slavery, states passed laws which made the public criticism of slavery punishable by up to a year imprisonment. The slave industry had become legally protected to the point where the rights of the slave trade trumped free speech.

By the time of the American Revolution, approximately 20% of those living in the American colonies were enslaved.

After John Brown led a slave revolt on Harper's Ferry, he was tried for inciting an insurrection, convicted and hanged along with many of those who taken part.

I learned in high school that The Civil War was about states rights but the founding documents of the Confederacy note that slavery is to be the cornerstone of the new nation the Rebel states were founding. They rejected the Union's abandonment of the institution of slavery.

Lincoln initially advocated gradual Emancipation, whereby the US government would reimburse slaveowners for freed slaves. While this didn't happen at the federal level, DC took the first action, offering slaveholders $300 for each slave freed. That'd be about $7737/slave today.

Many Northerners opposed the Emancipation Proclamation - they supported the Union army for preservation of the union and did not support abolishing slavery. Many especially opposed Blacks joining the Union army and having access to weapons.