# Was the U.S. Civil War all about slavery?

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/was-the-u-s-civil-war-all-about-slavery/540432>\
**Category:** Great Debates\
**Created:** [May 23, 2010, 3:36am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/was-the-u-s-civil-war-all-about-slavery/540432 "2010-05-23T03:36:16Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 1\
**Showing post:** 153

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**Author:** ![AllFreedomUnlessDefyingScience](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/e36b37/32.png) [@AllFreedomUnlessDefyingScience](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/AllFreedomUnlessDefyingScience)\
**Post date:** [May 28, 2010, 5:28am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/was-the-u-s-civil-war-all-about-slavery/540432/153 "2010-05-28T05:28:10Z")

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> [@What inaccurate or flawed history, science, etc. lessons was I taught in school as a kid?](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-inaccurate-or-flawed-history-science-etc-lessons-was-i-taught-in-school-as-a-kid/539924/253):
>
> i would really like to see a coherent argument that the civil war would have happened if there was no slavery. i don’t know of one, and kind of doubt there is one, but i’m not a student of history, so if someone has some real evidence please bring it forward.

This is a quote from way back in the original thread. My position is that while slavery was the primary cause of the Civil War, to state that any event as large as a war is about a single cause is a gross over-simplification. My presentation of ‘real evidence’ may be sparse, however I enjoy the intellectual challenge of making the abstract argument.

Assumption: The real reason behind slavery was economic (without it all those in power in the south would collapse, as would the entire economy effectively devastating it)

Assumption: Slavery was adopted in the south largely for economic reasons. To pursue an aggressive agrarian policy, it was necessary to have vast quantities of workers who were unpaid)

Assumption: If the south had rejected slavery and pursued another strategy for it’s economy, there are other choices they could have made which would have resulted in economic conflict with the north, that combined with regional differences could have easily provoked another war, even on the timetable of the actual Civil War.

Conclusion: There is a coherent argument that the Civil War could have happened about slavery. It’s abstract, and involves some big assumptions, but I feel sure it’s coherent.

Respectfully,  
AllFree

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