The Main Cause of the Civil War Essay

Introduction

There are still debates in academia and the public sphere about what was the cause of the American Civil War. Some see the Civil War as a moral crusade against the South’s abhorrent practice of slave ownership, while others see it as the South’s rebellion against the government that violated states’ rights. While it is reasonable to assert that such a complex and multifaceted phenomenon was brought about by many interlinking causes and effects, in the end, all of them lead back to slavery. Slave ownership rights that the Confederate states tried to protect were the root cause of the conflict.

Main body

There is ample evidence to suggest that slave ownership and slave-based commerce were precisely the “states’ rights” that were violated by the Union. The initial seven states to secede were in direct opposition to the abolition of slavery, and they have proclaimed as much. Texas, upon separating, has deemed the notion of abolition to be “the debasing doctrine of the equality of all men, irrespective of race and color—a doctrine at war with nature, in opposition to the experience of mankind, and violation of the plainest revelations of Divine Law” (Dew, p. 18). Wealthy slave owners backed these religious public proclamations of Southern diplomats. Slave prices in the antebellum South reflected the slave owners’ apprehension of the possible consequences of Lincoln’s presidency. The prices have dropped by approximately a third even before any significant hostilities (Calomiris and Pritchett, p. 2). The slave market was tied to the political discussion of that time, which supports the assertion that slavery was the driving force behind Confederate politics.

Furthermore, the anti-abolition and pro-secession narratives were supported by white supremacy with religious roots. In a famous Cornerstone Speech, the Confederate Vice President Alexander H. Stevens proclaimed that the Confederacy is founded “[…] upon the great truth that the negro is not equal to the white man; that slavery subordination to the superior race is his natural and normal condition” (Cleveland and Stephens, p. 721). This “great truth” is supported by the religious imagery of God, the Creator. A particular part of his speech appeals to God’s decision: “[f]or His purposes, He has made one race to differ from another.” That divine order is not to be questioned, as “we know that it is best, not only for the superior but for the inferior race, that it should be so” (Cleveland and Stephens, p. 723). These beliefs would later crystallize into Jim Crow laws and racial segregation in the Deep South.

Although the institution of slavery itself was the figurative apple of discord during the Civil War, another significant political factor was economics, specifically the cotton trade. The slave labor used to make cotton was a force that kept the prices down, and American cotton was exported to many other nations, where the local workforce processed it. The abolition of slavery would mean an increase in prices, a possible slump in production, and a need to find other cheap sources of cotton, which might have provoked global support for the Confederacy.

The fear of such support was an incentive for the Union diplomats to diminish the importance of the conflict and dub it a “domestic insurrection”, while even going as far as to deny their intention of abolishing slavery altogether (Sandy and Molloy, p. 27). They went even further as the war broke out, soliciting support from prominent European military figures and sowing threats of retaliation should any foreign power meddle in the Civil War (Sandy and Molloy, p. 29). These efforts ultimately proved useful, evolving even further throughout the war to ensure American independence.

Another threat from the European nations was the prospect of continued colonization. Due to the disorder brought by the South’s secession and the armies’ preoccupation with each other, many nations began claiming American land, putting pressure on both sides of the conflict. Many public debates were centered around the inefficiencies and instabilities of the American government, predicting further dissolution and lamenting the lack of a monarch on the American throne. The Confederacy feared the European invasion as much as the Union did, so the Southern diplomats continually asserted that the root cause of their secession was a strong desire to govern themselves and not the abolitionist intent of the Union (Sandy and Molloy, p. 26). Such proclamations might be the basis of the argument that states’ rights were a more prevalent cause of the Civil War than slavery. However, that was nothing more than a narrative to stave off European conquest.

Conclusion

Despite all the scholarly debate, the evidence points to slavery being the primary reason for the war. Numerous Confederate politicians and diplomats appeal to the biblical order that places the white above the black, and the slave trade formed the Southern economic landscape, which was a significant driver of political decisions. There were contradicting viewpoints, but they can either be attributed to a growing threat of foreign invasion or traced to the states’ slave ownership rights. Overall, it can be safely said that the degree to which slavery was the leading cause of the Civil War is exceptionally high.

References

1. Calomiris, Charles W., and Jonathan Pritchett. “Betting on Secession: Quantifying Political Events Surrounding Slavery and the Civil War.” American Economic Review, vol. 106, no. 1, 2016, pp. 1–23. DOI:10.1257/aer.20131483.
2. Cleveland, Henry, and Alexander H. Stephens. Alexander H. Stephens, In Public and Private: With Letters and Speeches, Before, During, and Since the War. National Publishing Company, 1866.
3. Dew, Charles B. Apostles of Disunion: Southern Secession Commissioners and the Causes of the Civil War. University of Virginia Press, 2017.
4. Sandy, Laura R., and Marie S. Molloy. The Civil War and Slavery Reconsidered: Negotiating the Peripheries. Taylor & Francis, 2019.