Did the South protect all its people? The answer is "no, they didn't." Whites treated other whites fairly, and whites treated blacks like creatures with no feelings. Southerners did not care about fairness, safety, or the environment that blacks had to deal with. Is this fair? Did the Southern laws protect everyone, or just certain people?

Since laws are intended to protect everyone and be fair to everyone, then that is how it should be. If, like in the South, they are not, and the majority tries to get the law changed legally but is unable to, then it is okay to break the law. In the Constitution it is stated that all men are created equal. If all men are not being treated equally, then they should fight for their rights as human beings until they get the law changed.

It is just like in the South when Lincoln became President. The Southerners wanted their states to be slave states, but because the Northern states opposed slavery, they could never work together. Lincoln felt that in order to keep the Union together all states should be anti-slavery states. Here is a quote from a speech by Abraham Lincoln, "My foremost object in this struggle is to save the Union . . . If I could save the Union without freeing any slaves, I would do it; if I could save it by freeing all the slaves, I would do it; and if I could save it by freeing some and leaving others alone, I would also do that."

Once Lincoln decided that anti-slavery was the only way to keep the Union together, and was elected president, the southerners felt they had no other choice but to secede, thus breaking the law. They felt the law no longer protected them. Choosing to break the law had very serious consequences for the South, but they had the right to do it.