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    Civil War Overview RW

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    The American Civil War lasted from 1861 to 1865 and was fought between Northern and Southern states over the issue of slavery. The Southern states relied on slavery as cheap labor for their plantation economy, while the Northern states opposed the expansion of slavery and saw it as a moral wrong. After Abraham Lincoln was elected president in 1860 as a Republican who opposed slavery, seven Southern states seceded to form the Confederate States of America. When the Confederacy attacked a Union fort, the Civil War began in earnest and lasted for four bloody years, ultimately resulting in Union victory and the abolition of slavery.

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    Civil War Overview RW

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    370 views6 pages
    The American Civil War lasted from 1861 to 1865 and was fought between Northern and Southern states over the issue of slavery. The Southern states relied on slavery as cheap labor for their plantation economy, while the Northern states opposed the expansion of slavery and saw it as a moral wrong. After Abraham Lincoln was elected president in 1860 as a Republican who opposed slavery, seven Southern states seceded to form the Confederate States of America. When the Confederacy attacked a Union fort, the Civil War began in earnest and lasted for four bloody years, ultimately resulting in Union victory and the abolition of slavery.

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    The American Civil War lasted from 1861 to 1865 and was fought between Northern and Southern states over the issue of slavery. The Southern states relied on slavery as cheap labor for their plantation economy, while the Northern states opposed the expansion of slavery and saw it as a moral wrong. After Abraham Lincoln was elected president in 1860 as a Republican who opposed slavery, seven Southern states seceded to form the Confederate States of America. When the Confederacy attacked a Union fort, the Civil War began in earnest and lasted for four bloody years, ultimately resulting in Union victory and the abolition of slavery.

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    © All Rights Reserved
    Download as PDF, TXT or read online from Scribd
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    370 views6 pages

    Civil War Overview RW

    Uploaded by

    api-235361041
    The American Civil War lasted from 1861 to 1865 and was fought between Northern and Southern states over the issue of slavery. The Southern states relied on slavery as cheap labor for their plantation economy, while the Northern states opposed the expansion of slavery and saw it as a moral wrong. After Abraham Lincoln was elected president in 1860 as a Republican who opposed slavery, seven Southern states seceded to form the Confederate States of America. When the Confederacy attacked a Union fort, the Civil War began in earnest and lasted for four bloody years, ultimately resulting in Union victory and the abolition of slavery.

    Copyright:

    © All Rights Reserved
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    of 6

    The

    American Civil War

    The American Civil War


    By ReadWorks

    Source: United States Marines

    The American Civil War lasted from 1861 to 1865. It was the result of a period of
    many tense years between the Northern states and the Southern states. The major
    issue between the North and the South was slavery. Starting in the 1850s, Northerners
    became more and more hostile to the idea of slavery on moral grounds, while slavery
    continued to be an accepted fact of life in the South.
    In the early- to mid-1800s, large farms called plantations were the backbone of
    the Southern economy. Cotton, a cheap material used often in everyday life all over the
    world, was one of the most important crops grown on the plantations. As a result, cotton
    plantations multiplied throughout the region. Soon the South had become the main
    grower and exporter of cotton for Europe and a powerful economic force. Many people
    were required to work on plantations.
    Southern plantation owners relied on slaves as the cheapest form of labor to work
    the fields. Slaves who worked in the fields typically lived in shacks in the slave quarters
    at a distance from the main house where the owners families lived. They were given
    very little free time and were required to be answerable to the plantation owner. Some
    slaves even worked inside the homes of plantation owners, cleaning the house or taking
    care of the children.

    2015 ReadWorks, Inc. All rights reserved.

    The American Civil War

    Slaves were considered property. They worked on plantations, in shops, in towns


    and cities, and in the construction of railroads. In the South, slaves were just another
    part of the landscape.
    A different understanding of slavery, however, was beginning to take shape in the
    North. Taking the most progressive stand of the day, the Vermont Constitution of 1777
    insisted that all men are born equally free and independent. It added a clause prohibiting
    slavery based on this belief. The Declaration of Independence, in stating that all men are
    created equal, inspired Vermont to prohibit slavery in its constitution in 1777. By 1804, all
    states north of Maryland had voted to abolish slavery, many through a process of gradual
    emancipation, which set deadlines by which a slave must be freed, depending on the work
    done or the age reached. Also, during the antebellum period (1815 1860), the North
    began a process of modernization and industrialization. Industrial advances allowed for the
    development and expansion of new industries, like transportation (roads, canals, and
    railroads), communications (magazines and newspapers), and finance (banking and
    insurance). These industries fueled a demand for wage labor, which was partially met by
    the influx of immigrants from Europe. Refugees from European political and economic
    conditions sought the freedoms of American life, and many settled in the northern states.
    By the 1850s, the majority of people in the North were opposed to the expansion of
    slavery. They were also against allowing new states to join the United States as slave
    states. Some people were opposed to slavery for moral reasons, and they formed a
    movement in the North called abolitionism. The movement called for the legal end to
    slavery in all of the United States. The wealthy Southern states saw abolitionism as a threat
    to their way of life and fought against the Northern states politically whenever there was a
    chance. Abraham Lincoln was a Republican from Illinois who believed firmly in the Union, as
    opposed to states rights to choose their own practices (regarding slavery, taxes, and other
    issues). He was elected president in 1860, which was just too much for the Southern
    states. And so, soon after Lincoln took office, seven Southern states seceded from the
    United States of America and formed the Confederate States of America so that they could
    rule themselves as they saw fit. These states were South Carolina, Mississippi, Florida,
    Alabama, Georgia, Louisiana, and Texas.
    2015 ReadWorks, Inc. All rights reserved.

    The American Civil War

    President Lincoln knew that the Confederacy was a rebellion that would have to be
    brought back into the federal government. But the Confederate states would not come
    back without a fight. On April 12, 1861, the first shots of the American Civil War were
    fired upon Union (Northern) soldiers at Fort Sumter in Charleston, South Carolina. The
    Northern troops were defeated quickly, and they retreated. Soon afterward, four more
    statesVirginia, Arkansas, Tennessee, and North Carolinajoined the Confederacy and
    entered the fight.
    The American Civil War lasted four years and claimed the lives of approximately
    620,000 soldiers. Fierce battles were fought throughout the country, and many lost their
    lives due to the wounds suffered and diseases spread from poor sanitary conditions. The
    war was bitter, with most young men leaving home to join the fight, sometimes clashing
    with family members from the other side on the battlefields. The North was at an
    advantage. With access to more soldiers, as well as factories that could quickly churn
    out wartime materials, it was often able to fight harder and longer.
    Some of the most famous battles of the Civil War took place in Gettysburg,
    Pennsylvania; Bull Run, Virginia; and Antietam, Maryland. Although one side or the
    other was technically victorious after these battles, each battle (and the war in general)
    could be considered a pyrrhic victory: there were such devastating costs on both sides of
    the war that the victory felt like a defeat.
    After many long years and battles, the Confederates surrendered. On April 9, 1865,
    General Robert E. Lee of the Confederacy surrendered to General (and future president)
    Ulysses S. Grant of the Union at the Appomattox Court House in Virginia.

    2015 ReadWorks, Inc. All rights reserved.

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