[Sherman Logan]

If the North had not passed laws aimed at preventing the South from selling cotton to Europe, so the cotton could be uses in northern mills ...

Which laws were those? There were no laws against or taxes on exports until after the South initiated war. Then the Union started a blockade. Anyway, the Confederacy put an embargo on sales of cotton, on the highly mistaken theory that the resulting cotton famine would force European powers to intervene.

[Mark was here]

Which laws were those? There were no laws against or taxes on exports until after the South initiated war. Then the Union started a blockade. Anyway, the Confederacy put an embargo on sales of cotton, on the highly mistaken theory that the resulting cotton famine would force European powers to intervene.

I'm not an expert by any means, but my understanding was that the North put a tariff in place that violated their right to trade, so the South had to leave the union. It was fought over money, not to end slavery. Lincoln even said in his First Inaugural that he did not care about the plight of the Negro.