if memory serves me right, the south started being labeled bigots and rascists after the north completely ransacked georgia, and obliterated the south's infastructure.... Shermans march to the sea, set Georgia at least back 100 years, much of the rest of the south still hasnt full recovered, and the sociological scars from how the north treated the south from 1865-1900 remain.......In a sense the north managed to fuck over the black people who they claimed to be fighting for. Newly freed slaves had no where to go, after having the fields they helped cultivate burned, and their master's families livliehood destroyed. With no proper way to feed or pay for the former slaves(who most slave owners had a deep appreciation and mutual respect for) the outcome was either indentured servitude(which is worse than slavery), poverty, and crime.
Seceding from the union was idealistic, but at the same time about honor and duty to ones home state. Robert E Lee did not choose to fight because he hated the union, neither did Stonewall Jackson,they did it out of love and honor for their families and way of life.