On April 12, 1861, Confederate guns opened fire on Fort Sumter, South Carolina, this action started the Civil War. The war lasted four years and over 620,000 people were killed. The three primary causes of the of the Civil War were slavery, states’ rights, and secession.
Slavery was the leading motivation for the Civil War. “Beginning in 1870, the northern states of Pennsylvania, Massachusetts, Connecticut, Rhode Island, New York, and New Jersey moved to outlaw slavery, or abolish it” (Roberts 24). People in the North who thought slavery was wrong and evil were called abolitionists. Abolitionist such as John Brown, Frederick Douglas, and Harriet Tubman wanted slavery to be illegal throughout the United States. The South relied on slaves for their labor in the fields, to tend its large plantations, and other jobs, which demonstrated the South’s value for slavery. If multiple slaves were owned, the slave owner was respected and it improved social position.
An additional reason for the Civil War was states’ rights. This was not new to the Civil War. It was an issue between the federal government and individual state. The North and the South argued over how much power the states should have, versus how much the federal government should have. It was also the struggle between the institution of slavery or if the federal government had the right to regulate or abolish slavery within an individual state. The southern states felt that the federal government was taking away their rights and power.
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Secession was another cause of the Civil War When Abraham Lincoln was president, many states did not want to be a part of the United States. Southern states voted to break away from the United States. “Eleven states seceded from the Union and formed the Confederate States of America” (Katz 13). “South Carolina was the first to secede on December 20, 1860” (Mason 21). In 1860, the secession convention in South Carolina began secession. South Carolina sent people to slave states to convince legislatures to nullify their contract with the United States to form a new Southern Confederacy, which wanted to strike off on its own. President Lincoln said they did not have the right to leave, so sent troops to stop the South from leaving.
Although there were many reasons for the Civil War, the three primary causes were slavery, states’ rights, and secession. Slavery was the driving force, because while the northern states thought slavery was wrong and should be abolished, the southern states relied on it for its economy. States’ rights was another major influence on the development of the Civil War because individual states wanted to have a voice in whether or not they supported slavery. Finally, secession was another factor because southern states left the Union to form their own confederacy. All these reasons contributed to a war lasting four years with over 620,000 casualties.
