american history

When considering the causes of the American Civil War , one will come across specific tension points such as the John Brown raid or the Dred Scott decision or the election of Abraham Lincoln , but the actual causes were much more gradual and general than sudden and specific . The inevitable tension between North and South was guaranteed by certain economic and political arrangements that had existed since before the American Revolution

If one were to ask a random sampling of Americans what the Civil War was fought over , nearly all of them would

answer , slavery ' While slavery was definitely a central issue to the conflict , it was also a symbol of a much more universal tension . The issue of slavery contained so many of the economic and political contradictions of the United States that it is often confused as the ' cause of the war

The American Civil War ' is a somewhat inaccurate name , since civil wars are fought within countries . The American Civil War was fought between countries , namely the United States and the Confederate States The South fought not to impose its culture onto the North , but for the right to leave the North altogether and claim independence as a sovereign nation of its own

When assessing why the south chose to take such drastic action , slavery is clearly the institution that the south felt most passionately about defending , but there was a larger element at work . That element was the demographic and political realities for the south as the United States expanded westward to the Pacific

Since the beginning of the American Revolution , the southern states were wary of being dominated by the larger and more populous northern states . To assuage this concern , the northern states made several concessions to the southern states in the Constitution . Among the concessions were the maintenance of slavery as a legally protected institution and the counting of slaves as 3 /5 of a person , thereby artificially inflating the south 's number of seats in Congress and its sway in presidential elections

These compromises were deemed necessary at the time , as the colonists recognized the absolute necessity of forming a united front in the face of Great Britain . The compromises , however , laid the seeds for the Civil War

As the United States expanded westward , adding new states and territories at a quickening pace , the political power of the south declined . No longer was the Old South half of the United States it was now just a corner of an enormous nation , many of the news states of which had banned slavery . The south perceived itself and its customs to be a minority in the new American experience . They chose to strike out and begin their own nation , where they would be a permanent majority and where the institution of slavery would not be attacked as a brutal and primitive practice of the uncivilized and backwards region of a great nation

The states that chose secession rationalized their actions with the words of a southerner...