re: Who thinks that the south benefited by secession?

HHtM isn't even a Yankee, he should know better.

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The south in the antebellum years was populated mostly by slaves and impoverished whites ho did not own shoes.

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Do you have any source for the lack of shoes?

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I stand by my assertion that most southern whites were barefoot, illiterate oppressed people who were little economically better than modern day Ethiopians.

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I think you fail to understand the cultural dynamics of Anglo America before the war and the large Irish and German migration in the 1840s.

In the 1630s about 20,000 Puritans came to America and settled in New England, this group was what we would consider middle class, they purposely excluded both the rich and the poor. They are your typical Yankee. They valued education perhaps more then any group and were highly literate.

In the 1650s to 1660s about 45,000 Anglican Cavaliers and their laborers and servants came to Virginia. They also valued literacy and even the laborers and servants in later generations tried to emulate the wealthy.

In the 1680s to 1710s about 23,000 Quakers and German Pietists settled in the Delaware Valley they also valued literacy to a great extent.

Finally and most importantly between 1720 to 1770 about 250,000 typically known as the Scotch Irish settled in America in what was known as the Backcountry or Appalachia from Pennsylvania to Georgia. While not known for their high level of literacy initially compared to the other Anglo groups, many families were already quite literate or became learned and quite upwardly mobile. These men formed the greatest part of both the Union and Confederate Armies excepting the new Irish immigrants.

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In the 1650s to 1660s about 45,000 Anglican Cavaliers and their laborers and servants came to Virginia.

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Muh peoples.

Unfortunately, their descendants (and my ancestors) fled to the Alabama territory in the 1790's due to being British loyalists during the war.

Opinions did vary over time amongst Virginia governors.

"I thank God, there are no free schools nor printing, and I hope we shall not have these for a hundred years; for learning has brought disobedience, and heresy, and sects into the world, and printing has divulged them, and libels against the best government. God keep us from both!" William Berkeley 1671

"I... [proposed] three distinct grades of education, reaching all classes. 1. Elementary schools for all children generally, rich and poor. 2. Colleges for a middle degree of instruction, calculated for the common purposes of life and such as should be desirable for all who were in easy circumstances. And 3d. an ultimate grade for teaching the sciences generally and in their highest degree... The expenses of [the elementary] schools should be borne by the inhabitants of the county, every one in proportion to his general tax-rate. This would throw on wealth the education of the poor." Thomas Jefferson 1821

The 15 states that allowed slavery in 1860 had a class (free persons) structure as follows:

PLantation Aristocracy (4%)---owned largest and most productive plantations and generally owned 20+ slaves. These are the people who ran the Antebellum South.

Small Planters (4%)---smaller, less productive plantation owners with 5-15 slaves. These people worshiped the Aristocracy and aspired to be in that group. Very few made it after 1800.

Business and Professional classes (2%)--very small class centered in cities like New Orleans and Charleston. The backwardness of the Antebellum Southern economy is indicated by the samall size of this class.

Yeoman Class (40%)---small, independent landowning farmers. FYI, most Confederate soldiers come form this class. Almost none of these people owned slaves although some might own one slave.

PWT, Piney Woods folks, Dirt eaters, Rednecks, etc (40%)----lived in red dirt, hilly or mountaianous South kind of off the griid in many cases. Very little is known about this culture compared to the rest of the South.

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Racial disparity continues to be supported by a disparity in talent, specifically intellectual capacity.

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I guess that's why African immigrants tend to be more successful and obtain greater education than the general white population.

Imagine if the plantation owners would have paid people to work their land instead of buying slaves.

Imagine if the war had been fought with volunteers only and no draftees.

Well, we got our arse kicked, so no.