rsr, by the same token, the poor whites in the north were drafted while the plutocrat's kids bought their way out of military service while their parents profited in the industrial north by means of their majority in Congress which allowed them to prevent the south from free enterprise and so lined their pockets on the backs of not only the poor white's of the north, but also the poor white's and black's of the south.
The war was not as simple as many people seem to think.
Tom, I am sure that, having read my posts over many years, you
do not think I believe "the war was as simple as many people seem to think."
The fact remains that if you read the resolutions of secession the overwhelming cause of the war was the protection of slavery. I will not post the resolutions here. They are available at many sites.
Both the North and South resorted to conscription because of the horrendous casualties. Many Southerners and Northerners were forced to fight against their will.
If you want to argue Northern capitalism vs. Southern slavery, we can do that.
But to say that the North prevented the South from developing a diversified economy, that is just wrong. The Southern planters were making incredible amounts of money from slavery and saw no need to change their ways when they were on top of the pyramid.
If you want to criticize the Northern capitalists who ground down the laboring class in the Gilded Age, I'm all for that.