So you think that if it wasn't for having a centralized government to save the day, we would 1) still have slavery today, 2) women wouldn't be allowed to vote today.
No, of course not. I think that if it wasn't for a centralized government slavery would not have ended for maybe another 50 years. 50 years of people being whipped and chained isn't considered a worthy tradeoff to avoid the big, bad central government. As for women's voting rights, I think it's likely (though not guaranteed) that all 50 stats would have passed it on their own by now. It certainly would have taken another decade or few to make it happen without the central government. As for minority (particularly black) voting rights...well, if slavery hadn't petered out for another few decades I think it's actually possible that there'd still be states to this day that didn't allow blacks to vote. As it was there were states trying to disenfrancise blacks despite the 14th/15th amendments well into the 20th century.
And no, the US as a whole is not "squeaky clean," but they have (in the form of this evil central government) been ahead of the curve more often than not.
I will again point out that what you believe in seems to be antithetical to the Second Amendment ... you seem to be against the security of free States.
I believe in the second amendment for personal defense, for common defense from external enemies, and for defense against a tyrannical central (or state) government. If you consider forcing people to acknowledge human beings as people rather than property (by force), or forcing people to acknowledge women as equal human beings (by law) to be "tyranny" then I don't think we're going to see eye to eye. No, I do
not put states' rights above human rights.
Put simply, if the evil central government invaded my state over something silly like basic human rights violations...well, I'd not be fighting on my
state's side. I'd exercise my second amendment rights
against my state and on the side of the federal government.
And before anybody tries to give me a history lesson, don't worry I've had plenty. I fully realize that slavery was not the sole cause, nor the direct cause, of the Civil War. However, slavery was one of the root causes of the secession, which
was the direct cause of the war. So blah blah blah states' rights, but slavery was one of the "states' rights" in question.