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Examining The Civil War

Examining the Civil War
If asked, most people would say that the origin and significance of the Civil War was to end slavery. In reality, there were several factors besides slavery that caused the war. The southern states were also fighting to become independent unto them selves, new political parties were rising up, and social and economic factors were present as well. The Civil War was a defining point for what the United States was going to become.
The southern states were heavily dependant on their slave labor. Large plantations occupied most of the south, so there were few large towns or cities. While the north and the southwest were constantly growing in population, the south stayed relatively small with the slave owners controlling most of the economy and politics. The main economic resource was cotton or tobacco plantations with very little manufacturing of anything else. During the 1850’s only about 350,000 people owned slaves. This only accounted for about 1/3 of the population and consisted mainly of large plantation owners. Most small farmers did not own slaves, but still defended the idea of slavery (Wikipedia [Wiki, 2008). These small farmers also depended on the larger plantations economically because they allowed them access to markets to sell their feed and livestock and they also depended on them for loans or support when needed.
As the country began moving westward and new territories being admitted, the north and south became divided when deciding if these new states were going to be slave free or slave owned. During the 1850’s a compromise was reached called the Kansas-Nebraska Act, which led to these states being able to decide for themselves on whether to be a free state or not. At the time it was assumed that Kansas would be a slave state and Nebraska free (Davidson, 2002). This solved an immediate problem but in the long run it did not resolve the issue of slavery or reduce the power slave owners had in controlling the government. This...