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The American Civil War was fought mainly over slavery. In the southern states, millions of African Americans were held as slaves and forced to work on farms and plantations. In the northern states, slavery had been ended.
As the country grew westward, Americans argued bitterly over whether new states should allow slavery. The North and the South could not agree, and the two regions grew further and further apart.
When Abraham Lincoln was elected president in 1860, eleven southern states decided to leave the United States and form their own country. The northern states fought to keep the country together, and the war began in 1861.
This short introduction is meant to open the subject, not close it. A fuller guide to the war's origins and campaigns is on the Civil War resource page.