Slavery As a Cause

Slavery, right before the civil war, had been around for a really long time. For the South, it was a huge part of their economy. Meanwhile in the North, there wasn't much slavery going on. Slavery was also frowned upon in the North, but it wasn't given up in the South. The South depended on its slaves, without them their entire economy would crash and burn. Southerners grew up on huge plantations that grew large amounts of crops, such as rice, sugar, cotton, etc. Cotton became the most important after the cotton gin was invented. Hundreds of slaves could be working on one plantation. Conditions were bad. Slaves weren't given much food, clothing, and the majority shared a small cabin with ten or more people. The luckiest slaves were the house servants, if you could even call it lucky. They often lived in the mansion and would develop a closer relationship with the owners. They didn't have to work in the fields. All slaves who did something wrong were punished. Punishments ranged from whipping to execution. It was a tough life to live. In the North,  they didn't have big plantations. It was nearly impossible to grow anything in their soil. They had factories instead. The factory workers were more sympathetic with slaves. They often had bad working conditions. Even though they weren't nearly as bad, it was the first time a white man really knew what some slaves had to cope with. Pay was low, hours were long, workplaces were dangerous, and workers had to follow the expectations of their employers. This lead to anti-slave meetings (such as the one above) and rough edges between the North and South.

(photo from American Memory)