<P> Many southern whites had considered themselves more Southern than American and were prepared to fight for their state and their region to be independent of the larger nation . That regionalism became a Southern nationalism , or the `` Cause '' . For the duration of its existence , the Confederacy underwent trial by war . The `` Southern Cause '' transcended the ideology of states ' rights , tariff policy , or internal improvements . This `` Cause '' supported , or descended from , cultural and financial dependence on the South 's slavery - based economy . The convergence of race and slavery , politics , and economics raised almost all South - related policy questions to the status of moral questions over way of life , commingling love of things Southern and hatred of things Yankee ( the North ) . Not only did national political parties split , but national churches and interstate families as well divided along sectional lines as the war approached . According to historian John M. Coski , `` The statesmen who led the secession movement were unashamed to explicitly cite the defense of slavery as their prime motive ... Acknowledging the centrality of slavery to the Confederacy is essential for understanding the Confederate . '' </P>
who supported states rights during the civil war
the Confederacy