Events that Led to the Civil War: Slavery as an Economic Engine Not a Moal Isssue

[Jenny A]

You forgot the biggest economic ringer, tariffs. The Southern economy depended on shipping cotton abroad, primarily to England and purchasing foreign manufactured goods primarily from England.  Tariffs on foreign manufactured goods forced Southerns to buy what were then shoddy and overpriced Northern manufactured goods, while selling to the British who were bent on retaliation for the high tariff.  

Ironically the Civil War boosted the North's manufacturing capabilities, and not having factories of their own was one of the many reasons the South lost.