THE CAUSES OF THE CIVIL WAR

	"The tragic ‘fireball in the night’ imagined by Jefferson had finally 

rung. The Missouri Compromise had failed. Proslavery and antislavery 

civilians clashed in the streets and took up arms. Thousands of Northerners 

were willing to die for their beliefs. The Civil War had begun. The states 

were at war with each other." This dividing battle between the North and the 

South was unavoidable. The Civil War was caused by economic, political and 

moral problems. It all started by an alarming increase in a need for cotton, 

which triggered the building of a barrier between two territories in a growing 

nation. 

	New Machinery was changing the textile industry in New England and 

Britain. These mills needed more and more cotton, creating a new demand in 

the south. For this trade with Europe, after 1812, raw cotton accounted for 

one-third all cotton exports of the United States. By 1830, it increased to half. 

Cotton quickly became a big money-making cash crop for the South and 

North economy alike. But the demand also revived the need for slaves. The 

plantations had to be worked, and blacks were a cheap, efficient way  to get 

the cotton picked. To make their jobs easier, Eli Whitney took advantage of 

the new idea, and invented the cotton gin(short for engine). It rapidly cleaned 

the seeds from the short, sticky fibers of upland cotton, the variety that grew 

all over the South. The process was simple: a roller carried raw cotton along 

wooden slats. Sharp metal teeth thrust through the slats and quickly pulled the 

fibers from the seeds. In 1794, he obtained a patent. Whitney still earned little 

because it was simple enough for manufacturers to copy. Even though the 

machine made attaining cotton faster,  slaves were still pushed to work harder 

and produce more.

	Blacks under captivity certainly led a harsh, unfair life. But that is 

where the white southerners believed blacks belonged. Northerners knew 

better.  Harriet Beecher-Stowe, a female, black abolitionist was aware of 

these conditions. She wrote Uncle Tom’s Cabin, which was published in 

1852, and described the incredible cruelty and horrors of slavery. Stowe 

wanted to "write something that would make the whole nation feel what an 

accursed thing slavery is." Her novel became widely popular, and within a 

year, readers had bought 300,000 copies. Wherever it went, it carried it’s 

powerful message of the evils of slavery. She hoped the novel would bring a 

peaceful end to slavery, but instead it seemed to bring the nation closer to 

war. Of course, not all Southerners supported slavery, nor did all Northerners 

oppose it. Yet antislavery feelings were on the rise in the North…few white 

Southerners went to extremes. Their concern lay in maintaining the plantation 

system as it existed. With her book she was able to gain many Northerners 

support in the antislavery race, yet at the same time she outraged the 

Southerners. Harriet’s novel was one of the many things that sparred mistrust 

between the North and South. The North didn’t trust the South because they 

refused to help Southern plantation owners capture slaves. North depended 

on the South for making money, and the South depended on the slaves to pick 

their cotton. This created the Northern fear of Competition. The North was 

afraid that South would gain power of crops and put them out of business. 

This meant that slavery would double. The North was torn between giving the 

slaves their rightful choices, or keeping the economy balanced. It was a 

matter of moral standards.  The South wanted to break away from the union, 

while the North still wanted the two territories to stick together. This conflict 

was the main cause of the Civil War. The South argued about their state’s 

rights. They said a state could nullify a federal law it did not consider 

constitutional. Southern states based their right to leave the union, on the fact 

the original 13 states had existed separately before they formed together for 

the United States. The South could break their allegiance to the union because 

they were not part of the original U.S. If they could form there own 

confederacy, the South could continue the use of slaves while also keeping 

their reign on the cotton industry.

	The political issues that caused the Civil War, revolved around matters 

that involved territorial subjects and slavery acts. In 1820, the Missouri 

Compromise was worked out and gained congressional approval. Missouri 

was to be admitted as a slave state, and Maine would enter the union as a free 

state. The compromise also prohibited slavery in other American territories 

west of the Mississippi river and North of Missouri’s southern boundary. 

Stephen A. Douglas introduced a bill called the Kansas-Nebraska Act. It 

proposed to divide the area into two territories: that of Kansas and that of 

Nebraska. It was implied that Kansas would become a slave state, and 

Nebraska would be free of slavery. Popular sovereignty was also put into 

effect.  This act gave the voters, in each territory, the right to decide whether 

to become a free state or a slave state. Together, they rendered the Missouri 

Compromise meaningless. 

	As the South’s dependence on slavery increased between 1790 and 

1860, the gap between the Southern cotton economy and industrial economy 

of the North widened. The opposing goals and needs of the North and South 

created a deeper conflict- a conflict that eventually lead to war. Basically, the 

North fought to keep the union together, and give black slaves freedom, while 

the South fought for their lifestyle, homes, and to keep things together 

economically.  The northerners had high moral issues while the Southerners 

wanted to keep their plantations and cotton production. They weren’t willing 

to give up there slaves. There were too many conflicts between the two 

territories, so they fought to resolve them. John Brown, a vengeful abolitionist 

put it best, "the crimes of this guilty land will never be purged away, but with 

blood". The north won the war, and ties were broken. The barrier they had 

started to build so long ago finally crumbled.