Slavery has been pinned into being the reason the Civil War started but it was not the main reason. Slavery wasn’t actually brought into issue concerning the war until 1863 when President Lincoln released the Emancipation Proclamation. The Civil War started in 1861 so how could slavery be the chief reason in the sectional conflict that lead to Civil War when it wasn’t introduced until two years into the Civil War? The sectionalism between the North and the South was caused by their opposite views on states’ rights and the clashing economies, the North being industrial based, the South being based on agriculture. Yes slavery was a topic brought up in both disagreements but only because the South felt it necessary to have slaves do all the labor work that was needed to support their agricultural economy, and they felt that if the new states collected by the United States due to westward expansion were all free states, then the South would have no political power. This tied into the issue of states’ rights because the Southerners thought slavery was their right.
       The North was the high rising new economy, ran by industry and looking toward the future. By that I mean more urban areas where all necessary products for survival were made inside the country. With this self-reliance would come less reliability on cash crops, like cotton, to be sold to other countries for the products that weren’t being manufactured in the U.S. Less cash crops, which were made in the South due to their agricultural economy, meant decline in need for plantations that thrived on slavery. This is where slavery came into the argument of the difference in economies in the North and South and which should rule the country. The North completely lacked the need for slavery because they had few to no plantations. The anti-slavery abolitionist group started in the North. The idea of industries in the South was seen as a threat to end slavery, which was seen as necessary to the economy. The unique economies of the North and South played a large role in the voting trends in political elections so the mainly democratic South also saw the Northern idea of spreading industries as an attempt at damaging their political status. The idea of secession from the Union was brought into consideration among the Southern states because of their fabricated threats from the North. The South started to separate from the Union because they wanted to keep their self-identity; their own agricultural economy and the Democratic Party. Slavery was never a main conflict in the fight for their economy, the South just used as an excuse to be separate from the Union and keep their own unique ways of life.
       The issue with states’ rights was also linked to the need for power in the different parties, which supported the wants of their separate region. Westward expansion was what caused this new tension for political dominance. Because new states were being annexed seemingly every year, new influences were needed to rule these territories. Both the North and South jumped on every opportunity to gain the edge in power. One of the most important events that led to the tipping point to the Civil War was the conflict in Kansas. When the Kansas Territory was occupied by the U.S both the Democrats, South, and the Republicans, North, tried to spread their influence as fast as possible. After the Kansas-Nebraska act, which allowed the residents in those territories to decide whether or not to allow slavery, was passed in 1854, the Northerners were in an outrage. This new allowance of popular sovereignty in the Kansas territory renewed the sectional conflict that was resolved in the Compromise of 1850. The pro-slave citizens in the Kansas territory saw it as their right to hold slaves because they were allowed to when they were in the South so why not in the new territories? They felt that because the Democrats ruled Congress that they would be able to pass laws that allowed the use of slaves as a state right and the development of a transcontinental railroad across the South that supported westward expansion of southerners. The abolitionists in the Kansas territory disagreed. The conflict between abolitionists and slave holders in the Kansas territory led to violence over the right to hold slaves, leading to the term “Bleeding Kansas”. Again, slavery was used as an instigator in a topic that was much bigger than its self.
       Slavery was never a main issue in the sectional conflict leading up to the Civil War. It was used to explode the issues of clashing economies and states’ rights into an unmanageable conundrum of violence and terror. Slavery was a touchy subject in America from the start of our nation. The government put off the topic of slavery in the US for so long that it blended its way into every issue that involved differences in the North and South. It wasn’t the main issue in the sectionalism in the country but it did turn out to be a catalyst in the South’s strive toward independence, causing the North to fall into a trap we call the Civil War.
 

Works Cited
 

"Control of Slavery Issue Brought On Civil War." New York Times 28 Oct. 1990: 18. TOPICsearch. Web. 15 Nov. 2011.
Brands, H. W. "Hesitant Emancipator." American History 44.2 (2009): 54. TOPICsearch. Web. 15 Nov. 2011.
 

AMSCO “Common Knowledge” -Kerr