Did the Civil War have to do with slavery?

Answer 1

This is the too-simple question that is supposed to mark-out nasty racists from 'Very Caring Human Beings In Society'.

The war was about the controversial balance between slave-states and free states, and the power of Congress to pass laws favourable to the dominant group.

To that degree, the war was about slavery, and its possible expansion into new territories waiting to be admitted to the USA.

When it started, the average Southern soldier (poor white trash) was not a slave-owner, and didn't care much about the 'peculiar institution', except that the cotton-growers had got very grand ideas about themselves, making everybody else feel vastly inferior, so the white soldier had to try and feel superior to someone - how about the blacks?

In the North, there was the much-respected Abolitionist movement, which carried a loud voice in Congress, but was not very numerous. The average Union soldier was definitely not an Abolitionist.

This is why Lincoln had to issue the Emanciption Proclamation - to turn the war into an official crusade against slavery, mainly for the purpose of keeping the Britiish and French from helping the Confederates.

Those who claim that the war was about slavery should question why Lincoln needed to issue the Proclamation.