WIC: US Civil War - Without Slavery

Lets consider a past where Slavery as an issue is marganlised. Either the Anti-Slavery movements fails to catch momentum. The issue of slavery is still very much there, but replaced by something else.

What other causes could have been the origin of the US Civil War? I know a lot of people call the war as a war of state vs federal rights. A lot of this however boils down to the issue of slavery. My WIC is if Slavery had either been less of a hot issue, or already addressed before the war, what other issue could have caused the war?
 

Anaxagoras

Banned
My WIC is if Slavery had either been less of a hot issue, or already addressed before the war, what other issue could have caused the war?

Nothing.

Tariffs were controversial, but never enough to set off a full-blown civil war. Had South Carolina attempted to secede in the 1830s, Andrew Jackson would have stomped them like a pea under a sledgehammer while the rest of the country either cheered him on or stood by the sidelines. And the tariff question itself was indirectly tied to slavery, since it was ultimately rooted in the different agricultural practices of the North and South.

The war broke out because the tensions over slavery, which dated to the founding of the republic, slowly morphed North and South into two distinct societies. Even religious denominations eventually split over the issue and slavery wormed its way into the very fabric of the Southern way of life. There was no issue remotely comparable to slavery that could ever have caused such a social change over a long period of time.
 
No. Nothing else that would do it comes to mind, not even the tariff drama. The truth is the South won almost every battle they fought over tariffs, as well as the expansion of slavery into new territories, and only seceded when they finally lost something significant-- Lincoln's election. (The planter elite really were babies that way.)

And just to be sure we do understand history here, since some Lost Cause fanboi is sure to pop up at some point-- the war was not over states' vs. federal rights... unless you mean the right to keep slavery legal. It was about slavery. Sure the planters were pissed about tariffs and taxes too, but not like they were about slavery. The states' rights stuff didn't figure into the rhetoric of the day except as relates to slavery and only really became popular with Lost Cause-ism after the war. Read the declarations of causes of secession of the states that issued them (the opening of Mississippi's is particularly enlightening) and then the Cornerstone Speech. Not much grey area, there.

In the four state declarations on that page the words "tariff" or "revenue" never appear, "trade" appears 2 times, and the word "commerce" appears only 4 times- twice referencing either the Constitution or powers that the state now claims for itself after secession, and the other two referencing the slave trade. Contrast that with variations of the word "slave" or "slavery" which appear 83 times. The word "institution" appears 13 times, about half in concert with the word "slavery" and the other half as a substitute for it.

In the Cornerstone Speech, since it is essentially a recitation of changes in the Confederate Constitution, the word "tariff" appears 1 time, "revenue" 1 time, "trade" 2 times, and "commerce" 5 times. And yet still, variations of "slavery" appear 11 times. "Institution" shows up 6 times-- four times as a substitute for the word "slavery", and at least arguably the same for the last two. And, Jesus, just read the two paragraphs that cover slavery...
 
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Lets consider a past where Slavery as an issue is marganlised. Either the Anti-Slavery movements fails to catch momentum. The issue of slavery is still very much there, but replaced by something else.

What other causes could have been the origin of the US Civil War? I know a lot of people call the war as a war of state vs federal rights. A lot of this however boils down to the issue of slavery. My WIC is if Slavery had either been less of a hot issue, or already addressed before the war, what other issue could have caused the war?

Nothing. The Deep South and parts of the Upper South viewed slavery protection as a life-or-death issue. Whites in those regions were outnumbered by slaves; if the slaves ever turned on them, they would die.
 

Anaxagoras

Banned
I once thought of writing a TL in which the invention of the cotton gin was delayed and a powerfully charismatic Southern preacher (a George Whitfield type) became virulently anti-slavery and took major portions of the population with him. The result was that slavery was gone in the South by the middle of the 1830s. In such a case, I really see no civil war in the future.
 
I once thought of writing a TL in which the invention of the cotton gin was delayed and a powerfully charismatic Southern preacher (a George Whitfield type) became virulently anti-slavery and took major portions of the population with him. The result was that slavery was gone in the South by the middle of the 1830s. In such a case, I really see no civil war in the future.

Then doesn't the US get more tempted to take more land from Mexico or other countries due to the lack of need to keep free and slave states?
 
Nothing.

Tariffs were controversial, but never enough to set off a full-blown civil war. Had South Carolina attempted to secede in the 1830s, Andrew Jackson would have stomped them like a pea under a sledgehammer while the rest of the country either cheered him on or stood by the sidelines. And the tariff question itself was indirectly tied to slavery, since it was ultimately rooted in the different agricultural practices of the North and South.

The war broke out because the tensions over slavery, which dated to the founding of the republic, slowly morphed North and South into two distinct societies. Even religious denominations eventually split over the issue and slavery wormed its way into the very fabric of the Southern way of life. There was no issue remotely comparable to slavery that could ever have caused such a social change over a long period of time.

What he said
 

ben0628

Banned
1) Ethnicity and religion. In an alternate World where the US owns Canada and or large chunks of Mexico, things could spiral out of control.

2) Politics. A early civil war caused by federalist/anti-federalist tension or perhaps a far worse Great Depression tears the nation apart.
 
I suspect if we had not reformed some of the worst excesses of the Guilded Age and Laissez Faire capitalism we might have seen some ugliness in the early 20th Century (as tensions would have been building for about a century by that point from the start of the Industrial Revolution)

As it is we had more of these kind of clashes than are generally realized by most Americans (who if they are lucky might have heard of the Haymarket Affair which was called a riot back when I was in High School)

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ludlow_Massacre

http://www.illinoislaborhistory.org/the-haymarket-affair/

The major point though is that it takes decades for things to really get ugly to the point of insurrection and war
 
Does this civil war have to line up with the northern states vs the southern states?

Can we get the New England states to secede?

Does it have to involve states seceding at all?

Can the war be about religion?

I think a good POD for this alt-Civil War would be Mormonism really catching on in a way it didn't OTL, to the point where it looks like Mormons are about to take over the country.

The best way to get rid of slavery as a cause would be to nip the abolitionist movement in the bud in the eighteenth century, or at least confine it to New England and Pennsylvania. New York, New Jersey, the Midwest and the West are open to slavery and slaves are used in industry, mines, and to build the railroads (they replace voluntary immigrants). Alternatively, have the abolitionists succeed in the Upper South as well as the North. Either way, a much smaller section of the country is doing something different in regards to slavery and can't stand in the way of a nationwide policy.

I've pointed this out on other threads, but in every country EXCEPT the United States and Haiti slavery was abolished without a war, and it was abolished everywhere, you never had a situation where half the states had legalized slavery and the other half didn't, even in other federal systems. And you get civil wars in other places. So disputes over slavery neither make a civil war inevitable, nor a necessary cause for a civil war.
 
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