I think this change (the abolition of slavery) was a wave that had been building in the culture and just had to break somewhere. The specific details (the laws passed, the Civil War) were just the particular shape the wave took when it hit the shore. If it hadn't been that time and place, it would have been soon after.

Taking from the defenseless has always been a part of our history. In fact we still practice it. It's just the victims that change. Slavery was too blatant for a civilized country. It had to be changed to protect our ancestors from their own consciences.

I think it depended on who our leaders were. If Abraham Lincoln had not been elected president, or if he had been elected at an earlier time before there was "civil strife", I think the outcome would have been different. America has a way of taking from those they see as "weaker". Not as much today, but in the birth of the country. The way they ravaged the native Americans, killing off 100's of thousands. I'm only 15 and I have these weird views that we shouldn't be giving Christopher Columbus or any one else credit for finding America because in hind sight native Americans did. Back onto the subject of slavery. Another thing you have to take into hand is that slaves came to be because of one tribe in Africa taking over another tribe and capturing their inhabitants and selling the to white people. So if you go as far back to that part of history, if that had never happened, then slaves would most likely have not existed. This is not to say that we wouldn't have racism. I'm sure people would still be the same assholes they are today and during the mid 1900's during the civil rights era...

Slavery, in terms of 19th century slavery, was essentially the ownership of labor which carried with it the burden of feeding and housing the labor. (This is in no way meant to be taken as empathy towards slave owners.) Today we still have the ownership of labor but now the slaves themselves have to feed and house themselves. This does not mean we don't treat slaves more humanely today, it's just a different form. How many people can just up and quit their job and still survive (at least in their own minds)? How many people today can lead a lavish "slaveowner" life? . I personally believe that as slaves became more intelligent and self-aware of their plight, the more intelligent the slave owners became and realized that allowing the slaves to become more intelligent and self-aware of their plight will ruin their good fortune. This why rich people control the actions of gov't which results in less funding to schools, limited access to health care, etc. . So I do not believe slavery was abolished. I think it has just adapted. How long will it take for this form of slavery to be abolished? No idea. It will require a lift in education and awareness of the poor and uneducated. IMHO.

I would hope not, but the things you mentioned (or something like them) had to happen.

God! I'm glad we bothered to have them! If the neo-cons had their way, slavery would be reinstituted. Only, like the Nazis, it wouldn't involve just race this time. (It WOULD include blacks, mind, but the poor and the mental hanicapped, and a liturgy of others.)