Was slavery the main cause of the civil war or was it something else?

Essay by ericdgrauf35High School, 11th gradeA+, April 2006

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What can bring a country to war with itself? In the 1860's the nation was split into two sides, the North as the Union and the South as the Confederates, with many differences between them. However, slavery was what caused the civil war to begin.

With slavery being the main issue in the south, they had trouble keeping them from escaping to the north where slavery didn't exist. This caused the South to issue the Fugitive Slave Law. The law forced the North to capture slaves that crossed the Mason Dixon Line. With the north not wanting anything to do with slavery, they became furious with the law and it caused major tension between them.

After being enraged by the South with the Fugitive Slave Law, the North passed a tariff. The tariff caused the South to pay taxes on themselves and their slaves. The South, made up of mostly slave owners, were outraged when the realized that they would being paying the North's government money for each of their slaves, especially when each slave is represented as 3/5 of a person.

As you can see with the South irate with the North about the tariff being passed and the North angry at the fact that they have to help the South capture their slaves with nothing in return, the issue of slavery is easily said to be the main cause of the civil war. Even when you try to look at every other reason the war started, about ninety percent of them revolve back to slavery. Because when you have one side trying to abolish slavery and the other side making slavery their main culture, the only way to resolve slavery is to battle over it.

In conclusion the Fugitive Slave Law and the tariffs passed by the...