re: Do you think the Civil War was started over slavery?

The civil war was the debate between the power of the federal government vs the states. It was about a cultural divide that had existed since the early colonial period between northern and southern colonies then states.

Slavery was the primary issue that brought the states rights debate to the boiling point and was the economic driver of that cultural divide.

The perfect example of this cultural divide can probably be exemplified by Alexander Hamilton's vision of an industrialized, urban nation vs Thomas Jefferson's vision of a nation of educated, rural, planters.

We still see the remnants of that cultural divide today in our regional differences and vast cultural and political differences between urban populations and rural/suburban populations.