In my 8th grade history class, we had a big unit on the American civil war and the events leading up to it. One of the things my teacher made very clear to us was that the civil war was absolutely about slavery. This year in 9th grade history, my new teacher said that the American civil war was absolutely not about slavery at all. I found this very confusing and I was wondering which one is the truth.
Not to discourage other answers but this question has been addressed a number of times including:
Was the Civil War about more than just slavery? by /u/Georgy_K_Zhukov
Causes of the Civil War? by /u/Borimi
Additionally, there have been some spectacular posts on this topic outside of AH:
/u/Georgy_K_Zhukov on The Lost Cause, the American Civil War, and the Greatest Material Interest of the World, aka IT WAS ABOUT SLAVERY!
/u/turtleeatingalderman on states rights or slavery?
/u/NMW wrote a fantastic post on second option bias in education and how it can warp perceptions of history.