US HISTORY

I think that most Americans believe that the Civil War was about slavery alone was because of the emancipation proclamation. In truth, the emancipation proclamation was just sort of a way to raise morale and give the north a reason for fighting. The real reason for the Civil War was that the South believed that the individual state's governments should hold more power than the federal government. It was over this disagreement that the Civil War started.The reason the South first raised arms is because they did not agree with the North's views on government. The South wished to have the state's governments in control as opposed to having the federal government having complete control. Many people believe that the Civil War was about slavery because that's what the North tried to make it about. The North tried to make it about slavery because that would raise the amount of people who were willing to fight.The South had a justified reason to fight. The South wanted to break away from the North and become their own territories. They had a goal in mind (to have the states governments superior to the federal government) and because they were fighting for a cause, they had more people willing to fight. The North only fought so that they could control the South.The emancipation proclamation only came up as a way to boost people's morale and change their attitudes about the war. Lincoln passed it in 1863 and it let the North occupy the slave states. It also let the slaves fight for the North which added to their military force. The emancipation really did nothing but help out the North's army.As you can see, the Civil War was not about slavery. It was about the South wanting independence. Many Americans see the war as a war of slavery because of the emancipation proclamation but it is not so.