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The American Civil War

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The American Civil War was one of the most devastating wars in America’s history. The war did not only divide the country, but it also divided families. There were a lot of things that led to the Civil War but, I believe the primary source of the North/South conflict that led to the Civil War was the issue over Free states vs. Slave states. The three political acts that helped this source of conflict led to the Civil War was The Missouri Compromise, The Compromise of 1850, and The Kansas-Nebraska Act.
Before you can get into the issue of Free states vs. Slave states you have to know why there was slavery in the south and why there wasn’t any in the north. The reason why the southern states had slavery was because of the agricultural economy the south had at the time. The most profitable crop in the south was cotton. According to a book called Emancipating Slaves, Enslaving Free Men: A History Of The American Civil War by Jeffrey Hummel, it states, “Cotton was the American economy’s leading sector, consisting half of all exports. For ambitious white Southerners, the primary avenue to greater wealth and status remained slave ownership.” There was slavery in the south, because there was more profit in it. A white plantation owner would rather have, slaves because he would not have to pay them any wages for their work.
The reason why the northern states didn’t have slavery, because in their economy there was no use for it. The economy the northern states used was an

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