What caused the American Civil War?

Encyclopedia of Opinion

Question: What caused the American Civil War?
Position1 of 2›: Slavery
Argument‹4 of 4: John Brown at Harper’s Ferry

Northern abolitionist John Brown failed to launch an armed slavery insurrection at Harper's Ferry, Virginia on October 16-18, 1859. The failed insurrection gave rise of suspicion among Southerners of a Northern conspiracy to launch slave revolts across the South.

The argument

John Brown, a staunch Northern abolitionist whom spent several years fighting for abolition in “Bleeding Kansas,” attempted to launch an armed state-wide slave revolt in Harper’s Ferry, Virginia on October 16-18, 1859. The insurrection attempt failed and ended with Brown executed on December 2nd. Public opinion was mixed following the attempted insurrection. A high level of support for Brown emerged from Northern public opinion. Southerners, disgusted with Northern sympathy and suspicious of a conspiracy led by the Republican party to launch slave revolts across the South, were deeply concerned that Brown’s failed raid would encourage future slave revolts across the South. This difference in reaction to Harper's Ferry would increase the ferocity of the slavery debate, arguably being the real starting point of the war.

Premises

[P1]Abolitionist John Brown's failed 1859 armed raid at Harper's Ferry aimed to spark a slave revolt and drew high sympathy in the North. [P2] Southerners, alarmed by that Northern support and fearing further revolts, saw the raid as a Republican conspiracy, sharply intensifying the sectional conflict over slavery. [C] Harper's Ferry inflamed the slavery debate to the point of war, showing that slavery caused the American Civil War.

Counter-arguments

John Brown's failed insurrection was ultimately a large publicity stunt with Brown arguably acting as a terrorist. It was not effective enough to be a cause of the Civil War.

Rejecting the premises

[Rejecting P2] The stunt did not have this much impact.