Secondly, though anyone with any understanding of American history realizes that slavery, specifically its extension into the western territories stolen from Mexico or its non-extension, was the underlying root cause of secession and civil war it is a virtual certainty that exceedingly few white Union soldiers fought and died to end the institution. The overriding goal was to reunite the country under the federal government, not to end slavery. The north was extremely racist itself. A huge amount of white northern workers were terrified of the prospect of free black men competing with them for scarce jobs. The “Free-Soilers” in the midwest abhorred slavery… because it would present unfair competition to their small family farms. If believing that slavery has to be abolished come Hell or high water was a requirement for serving in the Union army it would have been a very small army indeed. Don’t be deluded into thinking that the end result was the motivation for enlistment.