Nah, wee-zer, ain't like Saddam or Hitler and if you think it is you're not following my train of thought here too well... At the outbreak of the War there was already a strong abolishment movement going in both what were to become the Union as well as in the the states that comprised the CSA...

Movements are different than dictators because they involve cultural and attitudinal changes as opposed to coup's...

If you'll read Q'd post above this might just give you some insight into the "what's in it for me?" part of rationale of planatation owners... Like Bruce Springsteen say's, "Sooner or later it all comes down to money" and if for no other reason than that, plantation owners would have figgured out that slavery wasn't exactly econimical...

An, Mick, yes, had the war not been fought it would have taken a struggle, much like the Civil Rights movement... I pointed that out above... And I'm sure some folks would have died, and that is terrible... But when one compares the deaths and the hardships that would have resulted in something which probably would have been similar to the Civil Rights movement with the death and hardships from the War, this is a no brainer...

And I can't overstate my case that the war wiped out the educated, and somewhat enlightened, Southern male... These folks would have been the very folks that would have become allies with the abolishinists down the road... This is a very important point...

Now it's hard to view history in terms of "what-ifs" but as supposed civilized people it is an exercise the would do use all well as mankind to this very day tends to shoot first and ask questions later...

BObert