Civil War Argumentative Essay

The Civil War is usually regarded by the public as being a war fought to free slaves. Many people forget that the people who actually lived and fought during that time had many other issues to consider that are largely forgotten by us today. The most common reason stated is that the war was faught to end slavery. However, it is reasonable to consider that the southern states seccesion because they felt they're rights were being infringed upon or due to political stress from their vastly different econimic model.

The Civil War was certainly faught over slavery, there isn't really any stance that can be argued that would refute abolishing slavery as a cause for the war. However it is important to not that Emancipation Proclamation was not enacted until 1863 and the Civil War began in 1861. So the war did not start due to the Federal Government attempting to free southern slaves.

In the southern states the economy was dominated by big cash crops like cotton which required a large workforce and harsh working conditions. It was also more lucrative to not have to pay living wages to those that performed the manual labor making slaves the obvious and popular choice. The wealth and social position

held by plantation owners put a great deal of stress on realations between the different regions. With their money and political clout the southern aristocracy had a great deal to lose and with the fear that they would soon be outnumbered in the government by non slave states they had reason to believe they might lose it all. It can not be understated that one of the driving motives of seccesion was the will of this aristocratic class to preserve their way of life.

The economic model of the south is not however the only driving force behind seccesion and war. Since it's inception the United States had been viewed as a group of states united for mutual benefit. The term states was usually used to refer to soveriegn nations or counties. So its no surprise that many state legislatures felt that they had the right to govern themselves the way they thought was most beneficial to them and indeed they had generally done this until the Civil War. Many in the south had begun to fear that their rights as states were in danger of being all but dissolved. Which would put them at the mercy of a majority that did not understand or care to understand them.

While many circumstances culminated to cause the war it can only be said that the fear that slavery would be ended is the main Cause of the seccesion and the Civil War.

However, this really means that all three reasons are equally central to the root cause. Without slaves the economic system would be drastically altered resulting in decreased profits. The very act of abolishing slavery would be to infringe upon the rights of the soveriegn states to govern themselves. To top matters off many in the south didn't see slavery as being much different than the low wages paid to factory workers to work in deplorable conditions. So it isn't really possible to say any one reason started facilitated the war, without any one their very possobly would not have been a war in the first

place.