Recently, I got into a long discussion and argument on Facebook about the causes of the American Civil War. Someone posted a message on Facebook about August's demonstrations in Charlottesville, Virginia, and it led to an online argument about the causes of the Civil War. One Canadian guy I know insisted that war was about states' rights only, and implied that SECESSION WAS LEGITIMATE! I would like to know what the experts think about secession. Thank you.
There's always room for more discussion of the finer points of whether states could secede (the war and law arising from it arguably settled that point) and what caused fighting to begin (the garrison at Fort Sumter refusing to stand down is the classic spark), as well as the variety of opinion, but the war being about slavery at its heart--and secession ABSOLUTELY being about protecting slavery, regardless of the original Union aim of preserving the country--is beautifully detailed here in this series of posts by our own /u/Georgy_K_Zhukov. You may also look at the "Popular Questions" sidebar section on the US Civil War although the talk about the legal wrangling over just what secession legally was is uneven, the issue being unprecedented in actual occurrence.