I want to ullustrate in this paper that history texts offer a one-dimensional view of the reason for the civil war: slavery, while works of literature show other reasons for the war: preservation of the union and the growing importance of federalism from the northern perspective; with states rights being the primary reason for the south''s desire to secede. Of course slavery was a key issue, but not the main issue as often portrayed in history texts. Secondarily the paper should show that slavery actually became more of an issue from the norther perspective due works of american literature such as Uncle Tom''s Cabin. The paper should cite at least six sources which can be novels, poems, songs, and non-fictonal sources such as history texts, etc.