The Civil War: The Cause Of Slavery

When examining the Civil War, many causes of conflict are often overlooked by the obvious cause of slavery. While slavery was somewhat of a cause of the war, it definitely wasn’t a big reason and makes the key reasons of conflict seem very small and dismal. There were many more causes to the Civil War like some that will be mentioned in this essay. The Civil War was not fought solely to end slavery and free the slaves. First, slavery was more of a symbol then a reason of conflict in the Civil War. The South was completely devoted to an agrarian plantation economy, relying heavily on the farming of cotton to stimulate the economy. The North however, was going in a much different direction. They were relying on industrialization and a high number of immigrants from European countries to build up industries. By doing this, the North was gaining control of the government and killing the South’s efforts to maintain a balanced government. Also, after the Mexican/American War, the Missouri Compromise went into effect allowing slavery in western territories. Furthermore, the South felt that the slaves were more property than anything. They said that the federal government was prohibited by the tenth amendment by basically taking away the right to take
During the election, the South was concerned about complete control of the government by Free states. Furthermore, when Abraham Lincoln won the election by a large margin, South Carolina was unhappy with the Union and opened a convention so they could attempt to secede from the Union. Within a short amount of time, Alabama, Florida, Georgia, Louisiana, Mississippi, and Texas followed. To the South, Lincoln was considered a “Black Republican”. It was said that after Lincoln won the election, he inherited a collapsing nation on the brink of war. That was indeed the case as war broke out less than a year later and thus started the most famous war in American