re: Why was the Civil War fought?

A.


Any other answer is just an attempt to whitewash the war & make it socially acceptable to celebrate the CSA.


Do you

ETA: Do you. You do you. Do what you feel.


Saying it wasn't about slavery is an easy way to distinguish between rational people and...

C

quote:

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A. Slavery
B. Tariffs/Economic Policies
C. States' Rights
D. Lincoln's Election
E. Other
F. Magma

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Can't it be multiple things?

Not everything is so simple as "X caused Y," and history (particularly wars) is no different.

That said, Lincoln's election was seen as a threat to the institution of slavery, which was already under fire in the form of a handful of trade and economic polices (as well as it being essentially prevented from spreading westward as the country grew). Several states therefore left the union in order to preserve the institution of slavery within their borders, because they felt that it was only a matter of time before they didn't have enough control in Congress to preserve the institution.

This was seen as treasonous and led to a war.

Slavery was central to the outbreak of the Civil War. Anyone who disagrees with this is ignorant of history, willfully or otherwise.

quote:

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C. States' Rights

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to maintain

quote:

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A. Slavery
B. Tariffs/Economic Policies

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quote:

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to say southerners only revolted because slavery was made illegal is ignorant.

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Not only ignorant, but impossible. Slavery wasn't made illegal until after the south had already seceded.

Doesn't mean slavery wasn't an important dividing issue though.

quote:

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Well, slavery was already on the list. The southern states wanted states rights, and states rights to them meant maintaining slavery.

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Exactly. When people say "state's rights," my response is always "and what right were those Confederate states trying to uphold?"

quote:

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I'm pretty sure that, by 1821, no state north of the Mason-Dixon line or the Ohio River allowed slavery.

Correct.

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It is true that when the Constitution was signed several northern states still allowed slavery (NY and NJ, most notably), but that was abolished relatively quickly.

Maybe that's what people mean when they try to argue that slavery existed in the North?

History is written by the victor. There was much more to the War Between the States than just slavery. I'm sure you'll dismiss the author of this article as an irrational supporter of the CSA.

LINK

In his second inauguration, President Lincoln said it was slavery:

"One eighth of the whole population were colored slaves, not distributed generally over the Union, but localized in the Southern part of it. These slaves constituted a peculiar and powerful interest. All knew that this interest was, somehow, the cause of the war."

I think he was correct.