Civil+War+DMC


 * [[image:Colonial-Experience-DMC.gif height="80" link="Colonial Experience DMC"]] || [[image:Manifest-Destiny-DMC.gif height="80" link="Manifest Destiny DMC"]] || [[image:Civil-war-and-Slavery-DmC.gif height="80" link="Civil War DMC"]] ||

= Civil War and Slavery = The major problem in the United States during the 1860's was slavery. Abraham Lincoln was one who saw slavery as morally wrong and didn't want it to spread to the Western territories. The Democratic party split up into the Southern and Northern Democrats during the 1860 elections. The Northern Democrats nominated Stephan Douglas, and the Southern Democrats nominated John C. Breckridge. The Republicans elected Abraham Lincoln because of his views toward slavery. Lincoln assured the south that he did not want to remove slavery from the southern states that it already existed in, but the southerners saw Lincoln as a threat to their culture and society. This led the Southern states: South Carolina, Mississippi, Georgia, Alabama, Florida, Louisiana, and Texas to secede from the Union and become the Confederacy. The South seceding from the Union led to conflict between the two group which led to the Civil War. The Civil War was fought for and against slavery. The South was for slavery and the Union was against the spread of it to the Western states. The Union started to blockade the Confederate ports. This was a strategy to cut of the Confederacy's trade with the world. The Confederacy got around the blockade by using blockade runners(small fast vessels). The South quickly appointed Robert E. Lee as their leading officer. Lee invaded the North with the idea the the North would accept the South's independence. Lee's army was defeated by the Union at the battle of Antietam. This was an important victory for the Union because if Lee would have won then the British government would have been a mediator. Lincoln used the Emancipation Proclamation to change the war from a war to preserve the Union into a war of Liberation. During the war African Americans took up important roles. Men joined the army and women served as nurses to aid the wounded. The Union defeated Lee at Gettysburg claimed one-third Lee's force. The Southern civilians were terrorized when Sherman led a force known as "Sherman's March to the Sea". Sherman's thought behind the destructive march was the show the South the horrors of war, and try to get them to give in. Lincoln was the assasinated during a play by John Wilkes Booth. Booth snuck up behind him and shot him in the head. When the end of the war finally came, the Union was victorious. The union started to remove slavery and provided slaves with rights and other privileges that they rightfully deserved. However, the Confederates still tried to keep their custom by terrorizing blacks and forming the KKK(Klu Klux Klan). Today the KKK still exists but there are very few encounters. This war may have been one of the most brutal, but it created this great country that we call the USA.