Civil War

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Introduction

The Civil War era is one of the most critical and fascinating in our nation's history.
Also known as the War Between the States and the War of Secession, tt began April 12, 1861, when Southern troops opened fire on Fort Sumter, a U.S. military post in Charleston, S.C. More Americans were killed in the Civil War than any other war in history. The war divided the people of the United States. Families and friends often found themselves fighting on opposite sides. After four long bloody years, the war ended on April 9, 1865, when Confederate General Robert E. Lee surrendered his worn out army to Union General Ulysses S. Grant at Appomattox Court House in Virginia.

Let's take a look at what you need to know:

SOL 1.9a
Cultural, economic, constitutional differences between the North and the South eventually resulted in the Civil War.

How did cultural, economic, and constitutional issues create bitter divisions between the North and the South?

Issues that divided the nation

Slavery

While there were several differences between the North and South, the issues related to slavery increasingly divided the nation and led to the Civil War.

Cultural

The North was mainly an urban society in which people held jobs.
The South was primarily an agricultural society in which people lived in small villages and on farms and plantations.
Because of their cultural differences, people of the North and South found it difficult to agree on social and political issues.

Economic

The North was a manufacturing region, and its people favored tariffs that protected factory owners and workers from foreign competition.
Southerners opposed tariffs that would cause prices of manufactured goods to increase. Planters were also concerned that England might stop buying cotton from the South if tariffs were added.

Constitutional

o A major conflict was states’ rights versus strong central government.

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As you can see, there were many issues that divided the country, so how do you fix this? With compromises. The first compromise actually started with the Constitution to the United States. On January 1, 1808, a bill forbidding the importation of slaves was passed unanimously. but it didn't make much difference to the slave holders or traders, since the smuggling of slaves immediately took the place of legally importing slaves. Efforts were made to break up this illegal trade, but with little results. Sadly, it's been estimated by southern members that from 13,000 to 15,000 slaves were smuggled into the country each year!. In 1819 Congress declared the slave-trade to be piracy, and if caught smuggling slaves, they could be punished by death.

compromises were made to try and resolve the differences between the Northern and Southern states:

The Missouri Compromise of 1820	The Compromise of 1850	Kansas-Nebraska Act
Missouri was a slave state and Maine was a free state	- California was a free state - Southwest territories would decide about slavery	These states could enter the union with or without slavery--- the people decided the slavery issue ("popular sovereignty")

War Begins

After Abraham Lincoln was elected the 16th President of the United States, South Carolina seceded from the Union. Confederate forces attacked Fort Sumter in South Carolina on April 12, 1861 at 4:30 AM a single mortar was fired. It was the signal for forty-three Confederate guns around Fort Sumter to unload their four thousand shells onto the fort. The bloodiest war in history had begun. All of Charleston crowed the harbor shores to watch and the cheers went up!

Lincoln was hoping to keep the slaves states (that had not yet seceded) from joining the Confederacy and was very reluctant to to take offensive action. He expected that these southern states, especially Virginia, would remain loyal if the Union were attacked. But instead four more states seceded followed by Virginia, Arkansas, North Carolina, and Tennessee now eleven states strong. (The others were South Carolina, Georgia, Alabama, Mississippi, Florida, Louisiana, and Texas.)
"If all do not join now to save the good old ship of the Union this voyage
nobody will have a chance to pilot her on another voyage."
Abraham Lincoln
Source: February 15, 1861 - Speech at Cleveland, Ohio

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