Slavery: The Cause Of The Civil War

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The Civil War was a battle of controversy and the interpretations of the Civil War remain contentious even today. The American Civil War represented decades of malevolence between the northern and southern states and their fights for what they valued. While many argue that slavery was the only cause of the civil war, others say that the Civil War was caused ultimately by disagreement in economic and political standpoints. Both are essentially correct. Slavery was in fact a main issue that provoked the Civil War, but it was not the sole cause of the War. The Civil War was caused by the North and South’s differences in economies, opinions of slavery and politics.

In the 1800s, the south’s economy thrived on agriculture and the explosion
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Abraham Lincoln gave the famous Gettysburg Address, establishing a “new birth of freedom” for slaves (Abraham Lincoln 1863). The significance of slavery’s role in the war became even more prominent after the Gettysburg Address. Although the riffs between sides had been settled, many southerners resented the Union. Some southerners in the deep south still hold a grudge today. The abolition of slavery forced the southerners to lose their free labor force, and much of their land to the Union. Abraham Lincoln’s Address represented the final end to slavery and also warned of the dangers of the separation of governmental parties. With the upcoming 2016 election, animosity is omnipresent within the political parties. Controversies run deep between republicans and democrats on many current issues. Like today’s political parties, the north and south defended their own values. The north valued a growth in technology and industry, as well as the fight for the injustice of slavery. In contrast, the south valued their traditional means of living. They did not value the growth of technology and especially despised industry and the idea of paid labor. They valued agriculture and did not want to reap an economic downfall from the loss of land and slaves. Thus, slavery did in fact play a fundamental role in the American Civil War, but was not the ultimate cause of the

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