EDMES Grade Five Learning Tree

The American Civil War

People Who Made  a Difference

(1861-1865)

A civil war is a war between different groups of people of the same nation.  The American Civil War was fought between the North and the South.  It was triggered by the election of Republican President Abraham Lincoln  in 1860.  President Lincoln wanted to keep the Union together and to end the spread of slavery to the new states.

Topics:     Battle Lines        The End of Slavery        Causes of the Civil War

Battlelines   

After Lincoln was elected, southern states began to secede from, or leave, the Union.  Eleven slave states formed their own government, called the Confederacy.  They elected Jefferson Davis as their president.

The following eleven states became the Confederacy.

1. South Carolina
2. Mississippi
3. Florida
4. Alabama
5. Georgia
6. Louisiana
7. Texas
8. Arkansas
9. North Carolina
10. Virginia
11. Tennessee

The following slave states did not secede although they continued to have slaves. 

• Missouri
• Kentucky
• Maryland

The End of Slavery   

More than 600,000 Americans died in the Civil War, more than in any other U.S. was before or since.  The Confederate defeat led to the end of slavery throughout the United States and restored the Union, although much of the South was destroyed.

Causes of the Civil War   

1. Slavery

2. Ways of Life

3. Free Labor vs. Slave Labor

4. States Rights

Slavery.  Although most Southerners did not own slaves, and most Northerners were not abolitionists, slaver was at the heart of most major issues dividing the North and the South.

Ways of Life.  In both the North and the South, most people lived on small farms.  But in the North, there were several large cities where many people worked in factories.  In the South, there were many plantations worked by slaves.

Free Labor vs. Slave Labor.   The Northern economy was based on free laborers who could work where they chose and received a wage.  The Southern economy was based on slave laborers who were not free to leave and received food and lodging but no wages.

States' Rights.  The North thought that no state had a right to leave the Union, or secede.  the south argued that a state could leave the Union if it voted to do so.

Learn About the People Who Made a Difference.