And... key thing to understand is there is no one reason for the Civil War. The reasons varied from person to person and from state to state.
Most northerners weren't fighting and dying to free the slaves, no more than most southerners were fighting to keep their slaves - since most southerners didn't have any.
But slavery sat there behind everything, being the core catalyst for pretty much the entire thing.
..and it wasnt even a "civil war" really
"Every record has been destroyed or falsified, every book rewritten, every picture has been repainted, every statue and street building has been renamed, every date has been altered." ― George Orwell, 1984
