Many people think that the Civil War was about one thing, and one thing only, slavery. When researching you would discover that it was acually about many things. Not to say that slavery wasn't a key factor, but there were many. The main reasons that the North and South went to war were, they had economic and social differences, a lot of the states wanted state's rights, whether slavery should be allowed, and the elcection of Abraham Linclon.
With the invention of the cotton gin by Eli Whitney, the demand for cotton increased a great deal. The high demands made for cotton put pressure on the Southern states to supply it. As the Northern states became more and more dependent on industries, the South kept their ground with their plantaions. These differences in economy caused different values to develop causing tension between the North and the South.
As the United States developed some states wanted to become more and more independent. The government on the other hand wanted to keep everyone as a whole. They wanted to make sure that the states remain a strong counrty. Some states individually wanted to have more rights. That way they would be able to say whether something was unconstitutional or not. The government not allowing this caused even more tension between some states.
With Lincoln being a canadent for presidencey in 1860 many Southern states were worried that he was against slavery. Before he was even elected president seven states succeeded from the union,
Slavery was obvioulsy a key part to the civil way occuring. The South would loose most of it's income without slavery. Slaves did the most of the labor on the plantation where the cotton was grown. This was the South's economy. Without slaves they could go into proverty. There were many arguments throughout the Union about which states should have slavery. They also argured about where the line should be seperating anti slave states, and states allowing slavery.
All of these things were just contributions to the tension building throughout the Union. They broke out into war on April 12 1861 and ended April 9 1865.
If you take into account the devistation physically and human lives, this war was the worst war America has ever seen. 620,000 men were killed. Many of them died from illness and disease rather than on the battle field. Many towns in the South were destroyed. Although 37,000 slaves were killed, four million were freed because of this war. After their freedom many of them didn't know what to do. Many of them were homeless and without jobs.
I think that the Civil War was a good thing as far as wars go. The Union needed to to abolish slavery. It had to end sometime of another, and I'm glad it ended then. Without the War who knows where we would be now. The people who died will me commened forever.
http://americanhistory.about.com/od/civilwarmenu/a/cause_civil_war.htm
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