# "The American Civil War wasn't about slavery because slavery didn't actually exist in the South"

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-american-civil-war-wasnt-about-slavery-because-slavery-didnt-actually-exist-in-the-south/1013037>\
**Category:** Great Debates\
**Created:** [January 16, 2025, 7:59am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-american-civil-war-wasnt-about-slavery-because-slavery-didnt-actually-exist-in-the-south/1013037 "2025-01-16T07:59:56Z")\
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**Showing post:** 55

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**Author:** ![Andy\_L](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/c67d28/32.png) [@Andy\_L](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Andy_L)\
**Post date:** [January 17, 2025, 2:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-american-civil-war-wasnt-about-slavery-because-slavery-didnt-actually-exist-in-the-south/1013037/55 "2025-01-17T14:15:57Z")

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A previous answer to that very question

> [@Did anyone advocate for a new Constitution, c. 1865 (in the US, if I wasn't clear)?](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/did-anyone-advocate-for-a-new-constitution-c-1865-in-the-us-if-i-wasnt-clear/1005510/9):
>
> By 1860 only the balance in Senate counted. Northern population growth had overwhelmed the South; there was a 70/30 split in 1860, out of a population of 31 million. The South had around 4 million slaves, so they would have gained 1,500,000 extra in the Census, or about 5% of the total population, hardly enough to change the balance in the House. The 1870 census showed a population of about 38 million, making the free black population an even smaller proportion of the growing country.

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