we were taught that slavery was not the main reason....that economic issues were the main reason. I was in college in VA when a history professor said otherwise. 
But the truth is somewhere in between. The South started the war to protect the institution of slavery, but Lincoln sent in Union troops to preserve the Union...not free the slaves. While there were many abolitionists who hated the institution of slavery on strictly moral grounds, there were also many who hated it for the exact same reason Americans resent the loss of jobs to China and other countries with cheap labor.
from Lincoln's letter to Horace Greeley:
I would save the Union. I would save it the shortest way under the Constitution. The sooner the national authority can be restored; the nearer the Union will be "the Union as it was." If there be those who would not save the Union, unless they could at the same time save slavery, I do not agree with them. If there be those who would not save the Union unless they could at the same time destroy slavery, I do not agree with them. My paramount object in this struggle is to save the Union, and is not either to save or to destroy slavery. If I could save the Union without freeing any slave I would do it, and if I could save it by freeing all the slaves I would do it; and if I could save it by freeing some and leaving others alone I would also do that. What I do about slavery, and the colored race, I do because I believe it helps to save the Union; and what I forbear, I forbear because I do not believe it would help to save the Union. I shall do less whenever I shall believe what I am doing hurts the cause, and I shall do more whenever I shall believe doing more will help the cause. I shall try to correct errors when shown to be errors; and I shall adopt new views so fast as they shall appear to be true views.
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