Civil War Causes

A common assumption to explain the cause of the American Civil War was that the North was no longer willing to tolerate slavery as being part of the fabric of US society. Also, that the political power brokers in Washington were planning to abolish slavery throughout the Union. Therefore for many people slavery is the key issue to explain the causes of the American Civil War. However, it is not as simple as this and slavery, while a major issue, was not the only issue that pushed America into the Great American Tragedy. By April 1861, slavery had become hopelessly entangled and complex with state rights, the power of the federal government over the states and the South’s way of life – all of which made a major contribution to the causes of
In the lead up to April 1861, the North was industrializing at a very fast rate. Entrepreneurs were accepted and, in fact, were seen as being vital to furthering industrial development of America. You did not have to stay in your social place and social mobility was common. It was always possible but most of America’s best entrepreneurs based themselves in the North where the backbone of social class was weaker. The North was also a sophisticated mixture of nationalities and religions – far more so than the South. There can be little doubt that there were important groups in the North that were anti-slavery and wanted its abolition throughout the Union. However, there were also groups that were undecided and those who knew that the North’s economic development was based not only on entrepreneurial skills, but also on the input of poorly paid workers who were not slaves but lived lives not totally removed from those in the South. While they had their freedom and were paid, their lifestyle was at best very
State rights became combined with slavery. The key issue was whether slavery would be allowed in the newly created states that were joining the Union. This disagreement further developed with the Louisiana Purchase of 1803 whereby Kansas, among others, was purchased by the federal government. Kansas was officially opened to settlement in 1854 and there was a rush to settle in the state between those who supported slavery and those who opposed it. The state became a place of violence between the two groups and Kansas got the nickname ‘Bleeding Kansas’ in acknowledgment of what was going on there. However on January 29, 1861, Kansas was admitted to the Union as a slave-free state. Many in the traditional slave states saw this as the first step towards abolishing slavery throughout the Union and thus the destruction of the southern way of