Was Slavery the Only Cause of the Civil War?

Was Slavery the Only Cause of the Civil War? The United States was a divided country long before the Civil War, while some people would argue that slavery was the only cause of the Civil War, it is much more complicated than that. There are many other factors involved, such as irreconcilable differences in terms of their economic, political, and social beliefs on a national scale. Many people including myself had a primitive and unsophisticated view of what caused the Civil War, post war propaganda and moral righteousness have caused many people to believe that the Civil War was simply a thing of moral impurity on the part of the South, however it is much more complicated than that. Although slavery played a major role in the Civil War it was not the only cause of it. As a whole the United States was divided on many different things, one of them was the economic future of the nation. The North was basically a complete contrast to the South; “The North had five times the number of factories as the South, and over ten times the number of factory workers. In addition, 90% of the nation's skilled workers were in the North.” In the years leading to the war, the North’s industry was flourishing, whereas in the South agriculture was very profitable. Slavery was not essential for the economy in the North to flourish, because of all of the European labor coming from immigration, in the South however Slavery was a necessity in due to the large plantations. “As the 1850s proceeded, the divide between the North and Northwest and the South and Southwest widened.” The southerners in congress were worried due to the large amounts of immigrants that were flocking to the Northern portion of the U.S., because they were worried that there w... ... middle of paper ... ...e. The high tariff basically required the southerners to get their goods from the North instead of Europe, it “was then a substantial benefit to Northern manufacturing states, but meant considerable economic hardship for the agricultural South” After the Civil War, the Union had won, and abolishment of slavery had been achieved, however the place in society for former slaves was still very much in question. Although it took some time for the United States to finally become unified after the Civil War, aside from the tragedy and the death, some good can be taken from the war. No historian can actually say what would have happened to the country had the war not happened, so in some respects the war helped transform our country into the great world superpower that it is today. Although many people believe that slavery was the sole cause of the Civil War, they are