Long Term Causes
Economic Differences
Long Term Causes of the Civil war include the different economic systems between the more industrialized north and the agricultural based south. The differing economies of the north and south only greatened the division between the states. The north was industrialized to a greater extent with big factories and controlling 90 percent of the the nations manufacturing output, while the south grew the cash crops of cotton and tobacco which relied a great amount on slave labor.
The Dred Scott Decision
The Dred Scott decision sent shockwaves through both the Northern and Southern states and sparked massive public debate. The decision told people that neither freedmen nor slaves could be considered American civilians, and therefor could not sue in federal court.
Harriet Beecher Stowe's novel Uncle Tom's Cabin
The greatest long term cause of the Civil War was the Novel Uncle Tom's Cabin by Harriet Beecher Stowe. The novel was one of the first things to publicly question the slave system and "helped lay the groundwork for the Civil War." Even Abraham Lincoln exclaimed "So this is the little lady that started this great war" when he first met her during the start of the Civil War.
Triggering Event
The Kansas-Nebraska Act
The Kansas-Nebraska was drafted to open up new land for settlement. It was laid out to make the new territory sovereign so they can decide for themselves whether to be a free or slave state. This triggered mass movements to Kansas and Nebraska to increase the influence of their political affiliation. The opposing sides engaged in a bloody conflict nicknamed "Bleeding Kansas."