Causes of the American Civil War

The South, the Confederate States of America, seceded from the North, the Union, for many different reasons. Mainly this was caused byfour decades of immense sectional conflict. Furthermore, the North and South were extremely different economically, socially, and politically. However, the biggest difference was the North and South’s diverse interpretation of the Constitution especially when it came to the issue of slavery.
The North favored a loose interpretation of the United States Constitution. Additionally, they wanted to grant the federal government more powers. The South, however, wanted to reserve the vague constitutional powers to the states. The North also wanted internal improvements supported by the federal government; projects such as roads, railroads, and canals. On the other hand, the South was not concerned with these types of enhancements, and was quite content with their world of agriculture. Another difference between these two sections of the country was that the North wanted to establish a high tariff to protect their Northern manufacturers, however, a tariff such as this would hurt the South because it would inhibit the South’s ability to trade foreign goods.
On top of all these disagreements, the Union and Confederates could not agree on the slavery issue. The South wanted and needed slavery to continue their lives, which to this point werebased on agriculture. If slavery became unconstitutional the Southerners would lose a substantial amount of investment from their numerousslaves. Additionally, slave owners would need to hire people to cultivate the tobacco, rice, and indigo in the fields. The number of slaves in the South during this time was unusually high becausethe invention of the cotton gin allowed much more cotton to be harvested. From 1810 to 1860 the amount of slaves needed to work the fields rose from 1,190,000 to over 4,000,000. Southerners felt that they were doing their slaves a favor… they felt African Americans in the...