It wasn't slavery that caused the Civil War, it was the EXPANSION of slavery to the west that caused the Civil War. From the Missouri Compromise of 1820, to the Kansas-Nebraska Act, right up to the Compromise of 1850, the war was postponed because the slave states and free states enacted compromises in the newly opened lands in the west by deciding which new territory would be admitted as a free or slave state. Each side fought for the politcal and economic power in these areas. Finally, no compromises could be reached and the Union fell apart.
Granted, slavery alone may have not caused the war, but it is safe to say if there had not been slavery, there would not have been a war.
If they'd waited 40 more years, it could've been the *petroleum-producing states* vs the *non-oilie states.*
As it is now, it's the coasties against the "restivus." Or how about the "sunbabies" vs. the "snowbirds"? African slavery in the South came about because of climatology.
There is a minority in here who choose to ignore those historical facts and they are determined to exist in a defeated past, while ignoring today's real dangers we face as a nation.
It's not quite that simple. Every new state admitted came to the party with two new Senators -- so each new free state had the potential to shift the balance toward abolition. So the question wasn't just the expansion of slavery on the continent, but the expansion of abolitionism in the Senate.
All the compromises of the early 19th century were, from the Southern side, about maintaining the existing balance. It was a defensive posture.