Of all of the things I hate about the Civil War is the portrayal that it was all about slavery and it was not all about slavery. Slavery was nothing more than a piece of propaganda. If slavery had been an issue, why did it take Lincoln until 1862 to do something about it? By that point the war had been going on for 2 years. Would you go to war so that some rich plantation owner could keep their slaves instead of working the cotton fields yourself? And while Abraham Lincoln gets all of these accolades for freeing the slaves... in truth he was a hypocrite. This is what he thought about it.

I will say then that I am not, nor ever have been in favor of bringing about in anyway the social and political equality of the white and black races - that I am not nor ever have been in favor of making voters or jurors of negroes, nor of qualifying them to hold office, nor to intermarry with white people; and I will say in addition to this that ... See Morethere is a physical difference between the white and black races which I believe will forever forbid the two races living together on terms of social and political equality. And inasmuch as they cannot so live, while they do remain together there must be the position of superior and inferior, and I as much as any other man am in favor of having the superior position assigned to the white race. I say upon this occasion I do not perceive that because the white man is to have the superior position the negro should be denied everything. - September 18, 1858 - Fourth Debate with Stephen A. Douglas
at Charleston, Illinois

Now you could say that it was before the Civil War and that sometimes a man has a different view and can be turned around to see the ugly awful truth.

My paramount object in this struggle is to save the Union, and is not either to save or to destroy slavery. If I could save the Union without freeing any slave I would do it, and if I could save it by freeing all the slaves I would do it; and if I could save it by freeing some and leaving others alone I would also do that. What I do about slavery, ... See Moreand the colored race, I do because I believe it helps to save the Union; and what I forbear, I forbear because I do not believe it would help to save the Union. I shall do less whenever I shall believe what I am doing hurts the cause, and I shall do more whenever I shall believe doing more will help the cause. - August 22, 1862 - Letter to Horace Greeley

In the end the Civil War was about State Rights versus Union Rights and the seed was the very thing that spurned the American Revolutionary War. Taxation against Representation. The South was being deliberately kept in a poor state. The industrialized North needed the products that the South produced but there were multiple tariffs (taxes) put on the products so the farmer got almost nothing in the end, but the North got rich by selling their goods.

There is a little more to it than just that but that is the best summary of it.