Causes of the Civil War

             So was the Civil War about slavery? Absolutely. If the discrepancy over the issue of slavery had never come about, the South would not have discerned threat to its culture and the southern politicians would not have been as likely to seek "their right to secede." But was slavery the only basis of war? No. It was also about the constitutional disagreement over whether or not a state had a right to leave the Union, and the continuation of antebellum southern culture. Although the majority of Southerners had little interest in slaves, slavery was a chief interest of Southern politicians and therefore the underlying cause of the South's desire to seek independence and state right.
             Slavery was the source of the fiery debate only to be fueled by other issues. Basically the South wanted and needed it for survival of their economy, North saw it as an evil and that its existence in the South was a blot on the National honor. At this time the labor force in the South had about 4 million slaves. These slaves were very valuable to the slaveholding planter class. They were a huge investment to Southerners and if taken away, could mean massive losses to everyone. Slaves were used in the cultivation of fields of tobacco, rice, and indigo, as well as many other jobs. The South especially needed more slaves at this time because of the growing cotton industry with the invention of the cotton gin. Cotton production with slaves jumped from 178,000 bales in 1810 to over 3,841,000 bales in 1860. Within that time period of 50 years the number of slaves also rose from about 1,190,000 to over 4,000,000The plantation owners in the South could not understand why the North wanted slavery abolished that bad. Southerners compared it with the wage-slave system in the North. They said that the slaves were better cared for then the free factory workers in the North. Southerners said that the slave owners provided shelter, food, care a...

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Causes of the Civil War. (1969, December 31). In MegaEssays.com. Retrieved 03:58, March 29, 2024, from https://www.megaessays.com/viewpaper/76035.html