The debate amongst historians as to what was the single main causal factor in starting the civil war has been going on for over one hundred years and yet the debate is still somewhat inconclusive, even with the increase in technology and availability of primary sources. On the one hand where some historians such as Paul Finkleman assert that ‘historians are increasingly recognizing the institution of slavery as a primary cause of the secession and civil war there are historians on the other hand who assert that you cannot deduce war from the institution of slavery with the knowledge that it existed and was eliminated elsewhere without the need of civil war. The issue of what was the main cause of the American civil war is an extremely polarizing topic amongst historians and this essay whilst likely not providing the complete answer, aims to further enlighten one’s self on the subject matter. Slavery is chosen by a large majority of historians to be if not the main cause at least the most vital in terms of actually causing the outbreak of civil war. Gerald Gunderson states that “without slavery all other components are superficial." To a very large extent Gunderson is right in his assertion, simply due to the fact of how interwoven with the politics, the economy and social character at the time it is difficult to separate slavery out of the equation5. From the early 19th century slavery was a highly contested issue between the north and the south, northern states advocated legislation including prohibition of slavery from western America, to which the southern states responded with a slave code to protect the property in slaves wherever they were. This shows that quite clearly neither side wanted to budge on the issue and ‘accommodation was clearly difficult’. In fact the south was so attached to slavery that they would rather have gone to war than take the alternative of a compensated emancipation. Whereas the ‘northern pr