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  2. Why Did the Civil War Happen?

Why Did the Civil War Happen?

Time Period
1861 to 1876
Media Type
Video
Topics
Civil War
Politics & Government

"Why Did the Civil War Happen?" is the subject of the introductory video for the VHS blockbuster show, An American Turning Point: The Civil War in Virginia. Slavery caused the war, but the war did not begin to free the enslaved. Throughout the 1850s, slavery had kept the free North and the slaveholding South on a collision course that could end in dissolution of the Union or a war to preserve it.

An American Turning Point: The Civil War in Virginia, was a free exhibition commemorating the 150th anniversary of the American Civil War, that was on display at the VMHC from February 4 to December 30, 2011.

Learn more about An American Turning Point: The Civil War in Virginia.