was the American civil war just over slavery,?

Question

or was it also about tthe loss of a way of life too?

Answer 1

I've always been lead to believe that slavery was the core issue and spark that started the Civil War, particularly as the consequences of banning slavery would have severely damaged the Southern States economy - given their reliance of cheap (or "free") labour for agriculture.

But I'd also thought that there was simmering distrust and hatred from the South of the increasing power of the North in creating policy and trying to make pan-American laws that either ignored or were detrimental to Southern interests. In some respects it was almost a mirror image of the War of Independence, where America had wanted to sever ties with England. In this case, the South not only believed they were fighting to maintain slavery and their ability to make their own decisions, but the North had started to represent the kind of unreasonable power that England had been.

A gross simplification I know, but I hope that illustrates the point.

Answer 2

The Civil War was fought about a number of issues - the power relationship between the Federal Government and the individual States, tariffs and trade policy, the way the West should develop, foreign policy (including relations with neighbouring or close states like Mexico, Spain, and Britain). These could all have been dealt with within normal political processes without war. Remember that at the outset Lincoln denied any intention of interfering with slavery in those states where existed. But the existence of slavery, and whether it should be permitted, was regularly brought up when these other matters were discussed to the point where politicians based their policies on how slavery would be affected by a decision on any particular issue. Only when slavery was abolished were such matters considered and resolved on their own merits. It is misleading to see slavery as a CAUSE of the war - but there would have been no war had it not existed. It is more accurate to see slavery as a CATALYST without which the war would not have taken the form that it did.

Answer 3

The Civil conflict did bring about the tip of slavery in usa. whether, the emancipation proclamation did not abolish slavery. the stern wording in basic terms outlawed slavery 'interior any State or distinctive area of a State the human beings whereof shall then be in revolt against the USA' and since the Confederacy did comprehend the authority of the Union they have been under no compulsion to carry on with it. The thirteenth modification replace into what extremely abolished slavery because it replace into accompanied on December 6 1865 and utilized to all states.

Answer 4

It was a power struggle between the northern state and the southern ones....slavery was a secondary issue ...it was not the main issue for the civil war....

Answer 5

Slavery and the fact that the south didn't want to be part of the states.

Answer 6

Yea, it was about the vastly different lifestyles of the North and South, a power struggle.

Answer 7

No, it was also about states' rights.