Was civil war inevitable

Answer 1

Yes, because unless the south gave up on slave issue, they would have had to have a war, and they weren't going to give that up.

^^^ The war was NOT about slavery. Have you ever heard the term "the war of Northern aggression"? well that stands for the Northerners ILLEGALLY taxing the Southerners. As time went, the Southerners took a stand, and so the Northerners threw slavery into the mix for Lincoln to rule out the Southerners. But Lincoln didn't care about what was being fought over, he wanted to "rebuild" America, in other words he wanted to be re elected. Confederates tried to get rid of slavery but thanks to illegal taxations, couldn't afford it. Honestly, your History professor needs to get some actual facts under his belt instead of just some opinions on what the Union said.

^^^ YES IT WAS INEVITABLE. Also, I'm sorry, but to say the war was NOT about slavery is NOT correct. The facts(which you can research,read or ask your professor or teacher about):

Throughout the early 1800's there grew MAJOR differences politically and economically between north and south.

- Major differences economically (South: Plantations run by slavery North: Small farming and Big Industry. Problems also includes the differing of opinions on import and export taxes )

- Major differences politically (South: Pro slavery and Pro westward expansion of plantation style farming, and by association PRO EXPANSION OF SLAVERY . North: Anti-Slavery, Pro westward expansion of small farms and industry)

Remember that the south threatened to secede as early as the 1850's over the north's attempts to block the admission of Missouri into the union. Why did they threaten to secede? It was because of slavery. The north did not want a slave state, to be admitted allowing congressional majority to go to the pro slavery south. Henry Clay came up with the idea that allowed Maine to be created as a free state and admitted into the union along with Missouri (Missouri Compromise).

So you can see that already slavery was the underlying issue to the separation of North and South well before the start of the war. It is present in almost all of the social, cultural and political differences and was extremely polarizing.

For example, slavery made the north and south highly suspicious of each other, and as we all can relate, perception is often times more important than reality. The south was under the belief that all of the north was abolitionist anti-slavery (while in reality it was about 2% of the Northern population that were active). By contrast the north was convinced that a slave power conspiracy was afoot. They felt that a small group of southern planters was working to control the government, with the end all goal of ensuring slavery was protected.

This idea of a conspiracy was actually one of the ideas the Republicans used to help Lincoln get elected.

Once Lincoln was elected, you have the snowball effect of secession, Fort Sumter Firings etc. and the rest is history.

Was the war inevitable? You would be hard pressed to come up with an argument that it was not. You have 100+ years of increasing tension, and increasing violence (think Nat Turner's Rebellion to John Brown at Harpers Ferry). Regardless of whether that tension was manifested socially, politically or economically, it was all in part because of slavery. There is no way around it.

I've heard many times a "war of aggression" for the North (which i understand as a detrimental statement to the North), but i also know that for the south it was "A rich man's war, a poor man's fight" something not many southerners to this day are willing to admit, and take offense too. There were many complex factors that led to the war, but SLAVERY WAS PRESENT IN NEARLY EVERY SINGLE ONE OF THEM.

I suggest you do more research (more than Google) if you do not believe this. Read books, read personal accounts of Lincoln and Jefferson Davis. It is very enlightening and something EVERYONE in this country should be aware of.