Chelsea Clinton answers DT's question: "Why was there a civil war? Why couldn't that be worked out?"

[BainsBane]

17. The war was about slavery

that is not the same as Lincoln's goal upon entering the war. Historical causes are rarely the same as specific war aims. While there is debate among historians about the cause of the war, the argument that is was caused by slavery is widespread, if not dominant.

If you see the Civil War documentary by Ken Burns, Historian Barbara Fields notes that the war was caused by the inauguration of the republic with slavery existing within its borders. Most cite its impetus later with, for example, the acquisition of territories from the Mexican War or Bleeding Kansas.

To understand what caused the War, one has to think about what led the South to secede. For them, it was the election of Abraham Lincoln, a proponent of Free Soil--stopping the spread of slavery into the new territories. Slaveholders saw that as indistinguishable from abolitionism. They believed that without territories to export their slaves to, they would face widespread insurrection like that which struck Haiti in 1791. They saw Lincoln as an existential threat to their way of life, which hinged on slavery.

Slavery was indeed the cause of the war.