Essentially what Lincoln said is slavery is a form of theft, the theft of labor, one person stealing another person's labor without that person’s per… - Eric Foner

If Robert E. Lee, who rebelled against the American government, deserves one, then why doesn't Nat Turner, who led a slave rebellion?

Slavery was a byproduct of the quest for profit—economic actors were the architects of the slave plantation systems that came to dominate American society from the Southern United States to the Caribbean and Brazil. It was merchants and planters, not statesmen and jurists, who determined that slave labor was more profitable than free. ... This history constitutes a welcome corrective to the fashionable view that free markets automatically promote social justice.

The more fiercely the Confederacy fought for its independence, the more bitterly divided it became.