The end of slavery had nothing to do with human rights. The North hated blacks just like the south, as evidenced by the treatment of these "free" slaves during early Reconstruction. Lincoln himself said slavery was fine and could stay intact where it existed in his original proposal, but just couldn't spread into the new westward expansion states. Again, this had NOTHING to do with black civil rights. but was an attempt to control the monopolies of the huge plantation owners, who with slave labor could produce more at cheaper costs than Northern farmers, who were smaller and rural. The entire issue of abolishing slavery had to do with the plantation owners basically controlling the country, because of their economic power, provided to them by slavery. The free labor and large plantations were likely to spread into the new states, and Lincoln envisioned that these rich plantation barons would simply dominate all new states if he allowed slavery. NO one in the North gave a shit about black people or slavery as a human rights issue. It was a cover to dismantle the economic monopoly of the super rich in the south. So tearing down statues of the South, under the premise that the North was pro Black is simply incorrect, revisionist history.
