:) Here's the maps (http://sensoryoverload.typepad.com/sensory_overload/2004/11/free_states_vs_.html) that shows the free/slave division thing. It's sort of scary and yet itneresting how thought and belief can persist over time like that, even in a country with the population as mobile as the US. And then knowing that, the countries in Europe and the MIddle East and Africa that have been squabbling for *centuries* make more sense ... as wella s make you realize that the peace process is really ahrd and really long. :/