Multiple things lead to the civil war. Slavery was one of the things that lead to it. Take for instance the Missouri compromise prohibiting slavery in certain territories and then allowing it in others (in order to balance the number of free and slave states). Then the kansas-nebraska act came out negating the missouri compromise. allowing popular sovereignty, saying that the new state/territory could vote for or against slavery. This caused animosity between the radical abolitionists and the pro slavery people. You also have to take into effect that southern slaves were running away to the north, with the aid of northerners, adding more to the animosity between the north and the south. Throw in some wild cards like John Brown and it made things even worse. The final straw was when Lincoln a republican/abolitionist ran for president. Many southern states stated that if Lincoln were elected they would succeed from the union. In fact many southern states didn't even have Lincoln on the voting ballets. Lincoln was elected and South Carolina succeeded from the Union causing the civil war. You can also throw in the fact that the North was more educated/anti slavery, and the south was more agricultural/farming.
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