YOU DECIDE SERIES: Was the Civil War caused by the abstract principle of states' rights, the idea that each state should govern itself without federal interference? Or was it caused by the institution of slavery, the morally fraught and economically central system of forced labor in the South? Secession declarations from Southern states and President Abraham Lincoln's inaugural addresses provide starkly contrasting perspectives. Today, on this episode of History Shorts' new series, YOU DECIDE, we explore both sides of this enduring debate and examine the evidence so you yourself can weigh which factor was the primary cause of America's deadliest war.

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