In the past whenever slavery had been a problem, it had always been compromised about. However just before the outbreak of war, the issue had been made worse due to recent events of the time. John Brown’s raid Harper’s Ferry caused uproar in the South as they assumed that all Northerners were like John Brown. This incident intensified the worry felt by the South when Lincoln was elected president in 1861. As he was a republican with anti-slavery views.
When he was elected Lincoln dealt with these worries by confirming that he did not want to abolish slavery, but did not want it extend in to the new territories. Lincoln’s only reason for taking action was to keep the USA’s integrity intact. He made clear throughout the war that this was his goal and that it was not ‘either to save or to destroy slavery’. However, although his goal was not to abolish slavery it was all connected. After all, the Southern secession had occurred because of slavery.
Slavery was an influential part of Southern everyday life. They needed slaves to pick the cotton, as three quarters of the world’s cotton was grown there. The invention of the cotton gin made the cultivation of cotton on large plantations using slave labour a profitable enterprise in the Deep South. The slave became an ever more important element of the southern economy. It became an institution that southerners felt bound to protect. As a result of these new inventions the amount of slaves in the Southern states increased from seventy thousand to four million in less than forty years. This increase meant that the market value of the southern slaves increased to three billion dollars; which was more than its land and cotton’s value.
Slavery was not only an economical issue but a social one too. In fact, it defined every aspect of the Southern way of life. Although slave owners only made up 25% of the southern population, many of the other farmers supported slavery. To own slaves was a sign of wealth and social prestige; poorer farmers who could not afford slaves had a goal to work for. Evan those who were extremely poor and had no hope of ever owning a slave supported slavery, for no matter how poor a white man was in the South, they were still not at the bottom of the social system, as long as there were slaves. They also valued the institution of slavery as a safety action, as Negroes were racistly thought of as ‘fierce’ and dangerous.
However, slavery was not the only issue that separated north and south. While northern industrial opportunity attracted many immigrants from Europe in search of work, the South's population reached a plateau. Even as slave states were added to the Union to balance the number of free ones, the South found that its representatives in the House had been overwhelmed by the North’s explosive growth. More and more emphasis was now placed on maintaining equal numbers of slave and non-slave states in the Senate. As time progressed, the south became more paranoid that they were going to be overruled because of their lack of numbers. The southerners felt that Expansion for the South meant growth, politically, socially, and economically, and it meant more political power.
Slavery played an important part in the Civil War. Although it would not be fair to say that slavery was the only cause for war, I do not think that the war would have occurred if slavery had not existed. Even president Lincoln said that slavery was ‘somehow the cause’. When war started there were only a few people who were fighting because they thought slavery was morally wrong, but because each section felt that its personal liberty was at stake, and consequently this conflict could not be solved without war.