Origins of the War-US History

The war's origins lay in slavery, which began in North America in the early 1600s and grew rapidly in the South with the spread of cash crops such as tobacco and cotton. Although most white Southerners did not own slaves, the most powerful and wealthy Southerners were slave owners. The Southern economy as a whole depended heavily on slave labor.

Slavery was less common in the North, and gradually became illegal in Northern states after the American Revolution. As a result, North and South developed different economies and societies. Beginning in the 1830s, the abolitionist movement in the North urged the end of slavery, which abolitionists regarded as immoral and contrary to America's commitment to liberty. In response to abolitionism, many Southerners became more determined to defend slavery.

The sectional crisis between the North and South worsened from the 1830s through the 1850s. Northerners became increasingly convinced that white Southerners were determined to use the power of the U.S. government to preserve slavery and spread the institution into the Western territories. Southerners feared that abolitionists were trying to do just the opposite by using the government to restrict and eliminate slavery. Ultimately, the sectional crisis over slavery would be decided on the battlefield