Economic disputes between the North and South go way back, even before the Civil War, but taxation sowed the first seeds of the Civil War. The Tariff of 1828 was created to help pay the national debt after the War of 1812. The North greatly benefited from that, as the South paid about 75% of all the country’s taxes.
The Great Compromise of 1833 reduced some of the South’s taxes until the Force Bill came along and allowed the government to collect federal tariffs from the states by any means available. Before Lincoln took office, Buchanan signed the even harsher Morrill Tariff, which taxed imports at over 45%.
Southerners countered by offering lower import taxes. Taxes didn’t seem to be worth dying for, but the issue of slavery soon changed all that. Both sides fought for economic reasons, but slavery gave the North the moral high ground advantage which rallied the troops. The human rights Plan B was a “better” reason than economics to fight and die for.
Even after the Civil War, the 13th Amendment conveniently left a (slavery) loophole:
“Neither slavery nor involuntary servitude, except as a punishment for crime whereof the party shall have been duly convicted, shall exist within the United States.”
