More than 600,000 soldiers died during the American Civil War. Keith Lance/Digital Vision Vectors via Getty Images
Curious Kids is a series for children of all ages. If you have a question you’d like an expert to answer, send it to curiouskidsus@theconversation.com.
What really started the Civil War? – Abbey, age 7, Stone Ridge, New York
The U.S. citizenship test – which immigrants must pass before becoming citizens of the United States – has this question: “Name one problem that led to the Civil War.” It lists three possible correct answers: “slavery,” “economic reasons” and “states’ rights.”
But as a historian and professor who studies slavery, Southern history and the American Civil War, I know there’s really only one correct answer: slavery.
Enslaved people and soldiers on a South Carolina plantation in 1862.
Henry P. Moore/LOC/Archive Photos via Getty Images
White Southerners left