Slavery as a Cause

Slavery, or "The Peculiar Institution" as it was referred to at the time, was one of the biggest contributing factors for the Civil War, and it would continue to be an issue that the North and South disagreed on throughout the Civil War. Slavery had built up many different tensions among the slave and free states, in one way by the passing of the Fugitive Slave Act, a part of the Compromise of 1850, which stated that any runaway slave was subject to being found by any citizen of the United States, and then returned to their owner. Slaves were not allowed jury trials or to go to court against white men. This bolstered the feelings of abolitionists in the North, who immediately called for the Fugitive Slave acts to be repealed. The South then argued that it was interfering with their rights to take away their property, or their slaves, which caused more tension between North and South. At this point, southerners already had less senate representation because of the addition of new states, most of which were free, out of the area that used to belong to Texas. These new states included California, Utah, Arizona, Nevada, and New Mexico. On top of that, Washington D.C. became a free state as well, upsetting the balance further. Yet another way that slavery increased tensions was in congress. During heated debates, representatives would even fight, most notably between Charles Sumner and Preston Brooks, when Brooks beat Sumner with his cane. All of these tensions eventually led to the succession of the South, but not before Georgia tried to solve some issues. Georgia said that if the fugitive slave acts stayed, so would the southern states, and this was Georgia's platform. All of the mentioned topics here will be elaborated in later posts. Slavery as a cause the the civil war led to the death of many, many more people, and eventually the abolition of slavery in the Emancipation Proclamation, and part of the events that led to slavery becoming an issue was that slaves were truly the backbone of the south, making it absolutely necessary for the economy. This helped to make it a very controversial topic.
 
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http://clevelandcivilwarroundtable.com/articles/society/slavery_cause.htm