Civil War Irrepressible

The Civil War was provoked by many factors in the country at the time, specifically political opposition (state/federal rights, voting rights, Lincoln's presidency) and economic divisions (Southern plantations, Northern industry). With new territories being claimed, instead of the government getting involved in states' matters, the states' independent decisions were allowed, known as popular sovereignty. With this issue in Kansas came masses of people from both Northern and Southern states, all feeling very strongly on the slavery issue, hoping to sway the votes for the North or South. Also, both North and South depended on slavery up until the Civil War, where Southern farmers would send their produce (cotton in particular) up to the North, where the Northern industry would sell the finished product to Europe. However, economic division occured when cotton became the major crop in the South, whereas the North industry was well-rounded when it came to diversity.