re: Do you think the Civil War was started over slavery?

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East Tennessee from Knoxville to Bristol was mostly Yankee ... still is for that matter. It's a very pro-Obama, pro-Democrat liberal area even today.

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Jeebus christ no, no it isn't. At all. Not even close. Northeast Tennessee "most pro-Obama" area in the South ?!?!?!?! Gawd no.

Now, it was anti-confederacy (see Free State of Franklin), but that was because they were all too poor to own slaves from the beginning and were more of a mix of poorer European immigrants (German, Irish, etc) than their Deep South counterparts. Quite frankly they identified more with those who were slaves and indentured servants than they did the elite who owned the slaves. Southern Appalachian people always were and still are much more like people in Western PA than they are people in South Georgia or West Tennessee.

The area below is much more akin to eachother ("Appalachia") than it is to the area it is normally "associated with" (North/South/etc) (except for Asheville, it's it's own).