The Civil War Beginnings

The North

railroads

factoriesmany cities

The South

plantations

slavery

1.The North was busily building cities, factories, and railroads.

2. The South had few factories or large cities. Most people lived on

large farms called plantations.

Notes

Why do you think slavery was important to Southerners?

Southern states favored slavery. Many Southern farmers used slaves to work

on their plantations. States where slavery was legal included:

Texas, Missouri, Arkansas, Louisiana, Kentucky, Tennessee, Mississippi, Alabama, Delaware, Maryland, Virginia, North Carolina, South Carolina, Georgia, and Florida.

The South feared that the larger population of the North would pass laws that would hurt the South’s economy.

Examples of these laws were:– Taxing crops the South sold (cotton, tobacco…)– Ending slavery

What purchase did the U.S. make in 1803?

When the U.S. gained territories they would eventually be divided into states. The U.S. Congress had not decided if slavery would be legal in these new states.

Abraham Lincoln

In the 1860 presidential election, Abraham Lincoln promised not to expand slavery into the new territories.

When Lincoln won the election, South Carolina seceded from the U.S. It no longer wanted to be governed by U.S. Laws.

What does secede mean?

By February of 1861, Mississippi, Alabama, Georgia, Florida, Louisiana, and Texas had seceded.

They formed a new nation called the Confederate States of America.

4. One by one, seven southern states seceded from the Union. To protect the right to own

slaves, they joined together as the Confederate States of America, also called the

Confederacy.

5. Secede means to reject the government of the United States and leave the Union.6. Confederates are supporters of the Confederacy, especially soldiers in the Confederate army.

The Confederate leaders elected Jefferson Davis as their president. In March of 1861 he asked for Southern men to volunteer for the Confederate Army.

The Civil War begins…

President Lincoln wanted to preserve the union of the states. He said it was wrong for the Confederacy to take control of U.S. forts in the South.

One of these was Fort Sumter in South Carolina. On April 12th, 1861 Confederate soldiers fired

cannons at Fort Sumter. The Union forces surrendered.

The Civil War began.