Originally Posted by
husserlTW
All historians agree that slavery was one of the reasons but not the only one. Moreover the issue of slavery itself had many points of view. Except the humanitarian attitude there was a strong -and perhaps more important- economic dimension.
South based its economy in agriculture while North on a rapidly developing industry. Slaves are good enough (if not perfect) for agricultural work but not for labours in industrial production. Working in a factory demands some basic knowledge of handling machines, tools, strong feeling of team work, to be a part of a plan or product line, adopt objectives, etc. These necessary minimal skills could not be obtained by slaves, excluded from basic rights, like a basic education, etc., while the relation between employer-employee was completely different than that of master-slave.
North industries needed hundreds of thousands of new workers and slaves were not good enough for that. Industrial development and era found to be incompatible with slavery...