Slavery was not pervasive in America despite the attempts by leftists to rewrite history to make it appear so.   

If you look at the super-wealthy today as a percentage of the population you will get an idea of how prevalent slavery was.   

In order to have a slave, you had to have money to buy one.   Then, you had to have money to be able to keep them up.   

Most of the rank and file people were not large land-owners or big businessmen.   When you look at the general level of poverty in early America you understand that owning slaves was a luxury of the wealthy elite.   

If there were only 400,000 slave owners in America, why did over 600,000 Americans give their lives in the Civil War?   
It makes no sense for people to fight for something they do not have.   

The Civil War was about individual and states rights.   
Slavery was just a focal point for the violation of those rights by the Federal government.   

Racism has existed as long as there have been races and will continue to exist as long as there are races.   

Slavery was not the cause of racism but a manifestation of it.   
Racism was not the cause of slavery but a manifestation of it.   

Slavery was a way to increase labor supply while simultaneously keeping down the price of labor.   
That is sound economics regardless of the moral issues.   It lead to the slave-owner becoming even more wealthy.   

Outlawing slavery was in essence an illegal tax on the slave-owner .   The money that had been paid for the slaves and the cost of maintaining them was simply ignored by the emancipation proclamation.   

If you want to start a fight, mess with a persons money or their property.