Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
The Civil War
The US Constitution hadn't ended slavery, but it had given Congress the power to ap-
prove (or not) slavery in new states. Public debates raged constantly over the expansion
of slavery, particularly since this shaped the balance of power between the industrial
North and the agrarian South.
Since founding, Southern politicians had dominated government and defended slavery
as 'natural and normal,' which an 1856
New York Times
editorial called 'insanity.' The
Southern proslavery lobby enraged Northern abolitionists - but even many Northern
politicians feared that ending slavery with a pen-stroke would be ruinous. Limit slavery,
they reasoned, and in the competition with industry and free labor, slavery would wither
without inciting a violent slave revolt - a constantly feared possibility. Indeed, in 1859,
radical abolitionist John Brown tried (unsuccessfully) to spark such an uprising at Harp-
ers Ferry.
The economics of slavery were undeniable. In 1860, there were over four million
slaves in the US, most held by Southern planters - who grew 75% of the world's cotton,
accounting for over half of US exports. Thus, the Southern economy supported the na-
tion's economy, and it required slaves. The 1860 presidential election became a referen-
dum on this issue, and the election was won by a young politician from Illinois who
favored limiting slavery: Abraham Lincoln.
In the South, even the threat of federal limits was too onerous to abide, and as Presid-
ent Lincoln took office, 11 states seceded from the union and formed the Confederate
States of America. Lincoln faced the nation's greatest moment of crisis. He had two
choices: let the southern states secede and dissolve the union, or wage war to keep the
union intact. He chose the latter.
War began in April 1861, when the Confederacy attacked Fort Sumter in Charleston,
South Carolina, and raged on for the next four years - in the most gruesome combat the
world had ever known until that time. By the end, over 600,000 soldiers, nearly an entire
generation of young men, were dead. Southern plantations and cities (most notably At-
lanta) lay sacked and burned. The North's industrial might provided an advantage, but its
victory was not preordained; it unfolded battle by bloody battle.
As fighting progressed, Lincoln recognized that if the war didn't end slavery outright,
victory would be pointless. In 1863, his Emancipation Proclamation expanded the war's
aims and freed all slaves. In April 1865, Confederate General Robert E Lee surrendered
to Union General Ulysses S Grant in Appomattox, Virginia. The union had been pre-
served, but at a staggering cost.
