Slavery was a cause for the Civil War, but was it the PRIMARY cause?

Question

Any view on this is welcome. Thanks!

Answer 1

The proposed ban on slavery in territories yet to become states, not slavery itself, was the issue that sparked the civil war. President Lincoln, while he did not approve of slavery, felt that in existing states the institution was protected by the constitution. By blocking slavery in territories he saw the opportunity to increase the strength of the northern states in congress and hence the north could control the federal government. The south was already being discriminated against in unfair tariffs and the move to block slavery in the territories was another slap in the face to the south which caused them to decide to go out on their own.

Answer 2

Slavery was not the main reason for the Civil War, but it was a cause for both sides...one side for and the other against.

The Southern States wanted a larger voice in Congress and felt it wasn't getting a fair share. And they wanted the 'right' to have slaves. Remember, a lot of our Founding Fathers owned slaves...Washington & Jefferson just for example...and there are arguments that even Lincoln, while not a slave owner, really didn't want to free the slaves...after all, he didn't issue the
Emancipation Proclamination at the beginning of the Civil War, but only after the South had some major victories.

You can get a start on this by searching The Civil War on the web at www.wikipedia.org .

Answer 3

The primary cause of the Civil War was tensions between the agrarian south and the changing, industrial north. The North, dominant in the House because of its large population, attempted to modernize and industrialize the south and indeed change its very culture in order to make it more like the North. The South resisted, and slavery was the personification of this clash of values between Americans, one of many values in the South that the North attempted to change. That is why people with little education in American history label slavery as the chief cause of the civil war (and 5th graders as well). Serious scholars of the Civil War know that slavery was not THE cause, it was a cause, simply the most visible manifestation of a nation with vastly different people. By European standards, the South should have been a different country, it was only an artificial American creation that the two different areas were so closely bound together.

The South, in short, wanted self-destination to bring their nation where they wanted, sell their cotton to whom they wanted with tarriffs decided by them, and run their economy in the way they saw fit (agrarian) and not modernize and keep their ways old-fashioned.

This opinion was written by a New York City native and current resident, in case you think i'm a yankee-hating Southerner.

Answer 4

Mark D had it closest... Slavery WAS the primary cause in the sense that the northern states, with the majority of population and economic development, were gearing up to take an obvious stand against slavery The south saw the only chance they had to preserve their way of life was secession. Also correct in that the people of E. Tennessee and W North Carolina were then, and remain still, voters with a Republican mindset.

Answer 5

It was fought for the sake of preserving the union, and preserving the union was the same thing as preserving freedom.

Look at the historical fact that eastern Tennessee and western North Carolina (the area around Great Smoky Mountain Nat'l Park) tried to secede from those two respective states so that they could remain loyal to the Union. And that region, dotted with mountains, didn't have slaves. That region, like the rest of the south Appalachian region, was too hilly for plantation farming, so there weren't any slaves. The Republican Party voting habits of that region date all of the way back to the Civil War era -- because those voters didn't want to secede from the Union. I firmly believe that slavery was the primary reason for the South to secede.

Answer 6

thinking there replaced into relatively a huge form of slaves interior the North, it replaced into no longer precisely an typical difficulty of the civil war. It replaced into in spite of the shown fact that approximately state rights. have you ever questioned why there are a slave cemetery in manhattan, it relatively is larger than any the place else interior the country? Granted your college books won't permit you already know of this, yet examine will. there have been fewer slaves interior the South through fact of economic hardships imposed via unfair commerce rules. Former slave fought on behalf of the southern states. basically through fact a majority believes one element, does not consistently make it real, as has been reported, repeat a lie in many circumstances sufficient, some (or many) will finally have faith it to be actuality.

Answer 7

The main reason was TAXATION.
The yankees were trying to boss the southerners around and tax everything they had more than taxes in the north.

The slavery issue didn't come up until later in the war when Abraham Lincoln wanted to punish the south so he took away their slaves!

The ONLY reason slaves weren't in the north is because they were use to warm African climates and they couldn't survive in the cold winters of the north!

I have family in the south and in the north, and from what i've heard, yankees are far more racist. However, the south gets the blame for it because of the civil war.

Answer 8

A lot of it had to do with the direction of the country. That is, whether the Federal government would have sway over matters of conflict between states (such as interstate commerce) or not. The Confederacy wanted each state to almost act like it's own independent entity. The Union's goal was to maintain a true, national identity and keep the disputes between states limited.

Answer 9

Economics. The north's economy was modernizing and growing, the south's was arcaic and shrinking. The economic gap was widening and the states who suceeded saw their way of life threatened by the new economy they could compete with.

Slavery was more needed in the south, was it was a part of the cause. But as with all things political, economics was the overwhelming root cause.

Answer 10

the main reason was economics , slavery was a popular point that got all the news but was not political for almost two years after the war started.