I Have a Few Questions

[My Name Is Kate]

If both the North and the South agreed that the slaves (and black people in general) were not up to par, and did not want them integrated in any significant way into predominantly-white society, then it makes me wonder why the consciences of the Northern people were bothering them more than the Southerners' were. Or was abolition mainly just a political move on the part of the North against the South?

Did anyone ever think of asking the freed slaves if they wanted to remain in this country under Jim Crow laws, or would they rather be sent back to their countries of origin? And would their countries of origin have offered a better life for them, or worse, or would they have refused to take them back? I know it isn't fair to judge people from a different time period, by today's standards, but I'm having a problem understanding how anyone could have expected a good outcome from either retaining slavery, or abolishing it without granting equal rights and equal opportunity.