the secession papers of many states announcing the superiority of the white man and their god given right to own slaves flies in the face of this pretty hard.

yeah, you're right that the confederacy counter-intuitively wanted federal control over state control but that was specifically about forcing the north to return escaped slaves. thinking it was about a state's right to seceed is circular af, too. why did they want to seceed in the first place? the abolition movement and the refusal of the federal government to help the south enforce slavery.