Man, I envy you, Alan. I feel a little like a surfer living in Ohio. I've been doing a lot of reading on the subject lately. Some very interesting aspects of the events that just raise more questions for me. One thing I've noticed a distinct similarity of the barnburners and their steadfast position to the modern day tea party...but I'll leave that observation for another time.
One of the questions I have is what happened to slavery in the non-succession states like Kansas and Maryland, etc? How did the end of slavery occur for those people? Were they offered the government buy-out option that was floated around just before the war? And the whole idea of owning another human being is a tough thing to wrap your mind around. And why blacks in particular? There were plenty of native Americans around at the time, why not make them slaves? And why not Chinese or Arabic peoples instead of blacks? While slavery has been a constant since the dawn of human civilization, I don't think it was based solely on race like it was in the antebellum south. So it makes me wonder where the idea of using blacks vs. other races as slaves began. Had Darwin presented his Origin of Species in the 17th century it might all make sense but his theory would not be around for another 200 yrs or so.
And it seems to me that had the Union had competent generals in the early days of the war, the war itself might have never have ended slavery. For instance, had the Union used its superior numbers and weaponry early on, the confederation would mostly likely have quickly fallen apart and returned to the US at the time in which there were many voices willing to accept slavery in the states with slaves. The abolitionists were a radical minority when the war began and the emancipation proclamation was more designed to keep England and France from recognizing the CSA more than a true effort to free the slaves. For the majority of Northerners, this war was more about preserving the Union and not letting slavery into the new territories than it ever was about slavery itself.
All in all, it's a bit of a mind-warp to think this all happened right here in the US not really that long ago. A mere 3 to 4 grandparents ago (maybe more for the younger ones in the crowd) and you would be hard pressed to say we're really different people now than we were back then.