[thecavemaster]

The civil war wasnt really about slavery, so I dont think you can say that hundreds of thousands of people died to free slaves. Hundreds of thousands of people died to defend thier side, be it the union or the confederacy.

Blacks werent really free until the 60's.

Lincoln may have made a pragmatic choice to preserve the union, thinking it could not stand divided and hostile between slave and free. However, at least one of the things that the Civil War was about was whether or not human beings could be held as chattel in order to propogate a way of life.