The differences between the North and South of the United States were
substantial on the eve of the Civil War there were a number of
factors that caused this. Each side detested each other due to a
number of economic, social, political and cultural contrasts which led
to an irrevocable disintegration of relations between the states in
the years preceding 1861. Many have disagreed with the term Civil War
because it was not a class struggle. For example, John Nirven has
stated that it is very difficult for historians to agree on the basic
causes because it was a sectional combat in which the roots of
political, economic, social, and psychological elements were very
complex. (The Coming of the Civil War, 1990).
When any historian investigates the causes of the Civil War,
immediately slavery comes to mind. Problems initially began because of
disagreements of slavery the North was against it and saw it as a
moral issue that needed to be controlled and eventually dissolved.
English: Abraham Lincoln, the sixteenth President ...
Sam Houston was named commander of the new Texian ...
English: Massachusetts politician Charles Sumner.On
the other hand, the South, with their plantation crops and puritanical
social hierarchy were very much in favour of it. In fact, they relied
on it as their economy was sustained primarily by slavery as the
labour was cheap and was needed for the production of such goods as
their vast cotton market.
Therefore, the subordination and suppression of the Negro race in the
South was a great cultural difference to the Northern States. The
North however did not need slavery as they had grown more economically
and industrially advanced, along with the fact that the climate and
terrain was unsuitable for the Negroes.
Had there been no slavery, there would have been no war. Had there
been no moral condemnation of slavery, there would have been no war
Sydney E. Ahlstrome (History...