Though slavery was a key cause of the Civil War, it was not the sole reason for it. To hold slavery as the sole reason for the Civil War is incorrect as there were numerous economic, political and moral reasons behind the strife. Sectionalism (between the Northern and Southern states), Economic (between the industrial North and agrarian South), and Political differences (such as the South’s deeply held belief in states’ rights) all contributed to the conflict between the states. Slavery was the crux of the dilemma, but to simplify the cause of the war the slavery would be a misstatement. Also slavery was a complex issue that encompasses many other issues within it, particularly that of state and federal rights. Even in contemporary society, one can see how the causes of the Civil War have not completely disappeared and still have relevance today.

The differences between the politics of the North and South were numerous and significant and could be seen as far back as the creation of the Constitution in 1787.The fundamental differences were economic, and would lead to sectionalism and separation between northern and southern interests. The southern states were dependent upon farming a

Although from our modern perspective, it sometimes appears as if the Northern states (and those who inhabited them) were free of the prejudice more visible in the south, this was not usually the case. Deeply held prejudice and racism still existed in the North; one of Lincoln’s primary motivations for supporting abolitionist causes was that "even the free Negroes in the north would return to the southern states, their natural habitat within the United States". Even in the Northern states only four states legally allowed free blacks to vote, and there were no states which allowed blacks to serve on juries. The primary cause for the civil war, according to Lincoln, was that "one section of our country believes slavery is right and ought to be extended, whilst the other believes it is wrong and ought not to be extended. This is the only substantial dispute."

Debate still exists as to the exact reasons for the civil war, but trying to understand the causes is an important task. The effects of the civil war and the reconstruction period which followed, still has effects on the country. The 14th amendment, commonly known as the civil rights amendment, states that no state should “deprive any person of life, liberty, or property without due process of law.” The next year, the 15th amendment was passed which stated that “the right of citizens to vote should not be denied on account of race, color, or previous condition of servitude.” These amendments greatly angered Southern whites who less than a decade ago still held slaves.

The issue of slavery, although it is now seen to be a moral one, was primarily economic during the Civil War era. Up until the middle 1800s, slavery was kept as a background issue that remained largely the concern of political leaders of the South, and abolitionists of the North. But in 1854, the Kansas-Nebraska Act which was sponsored by Democrat Stephen A. Douglas, brought slavery to the forefront of national attention. The Kansas-Nebraska Act supplanted the old Missouri Compromise (which in 1820 had designated areas of the new territories in which slavery could and could not be introduced) and made it possible for slavery to be introduced in virtually any new territory. Douglas called the concept of allowing residents of the territories to decide the slavery issue for themselves Popular Sovereignty.

Northern businessmen complained that the South dominated the national government. Southern votes had been chiefly responsible for the low Walker tariff of 1846 , and the So

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