While the Civil War remains a landmark and poignant instance of American history, it was indubitably shaped by the issue of slavery. The part of slavery in the path to the start of the Civil War was very complicated getting involved with the Southern defense, the Northern opposition, Lincoln’s evolving stance, and the debate over the expansion of slavery into the western territories. These events highlighted the underlying troubled areas and the contrasting ideas that eventually resulted in the outbreak of this war. First is the Southern defense of slavery, which acts as a central factor which was at the heart of the precipitation of the Civil War. The "Texas Declaration of Causes" states that the right to own slaves is at the core of the Southern identity, which is also an integral part of their economy. The pamphlet says the labor unions of the Blacks and the Whites are deemed a good authority of Heaven, by God’s will, and approved by the Christian …show more content…
Lincoln began by supporting the Union and accepting the re-establishment of bonds, enslaving them where they existed, but he finally found himself in support of abolitionism. During his Lincoln debates with Stephen Douglas, Lincoln put forth his argument against the extension of slavery into the western territories as one nation could not function if there was a division between the slave-owning and free states. The election of Lincoln as President in 1860 on a platform where he stated that he was against slavery spreading into new territories turned out as the last straw that eventually caused the secession of Southern states and the formation of an independent republic by the name of the Confederate States of