Chapter 6:The Civil War and Reconstruction, 1848-1877

The Civil War

            The Civil war had several battles and two main characters involved. The South and the North, the South was known as the confederate and were positive with having slavery, their general was Lee, one of history’s most famous generals. The North was the Union Force. They believed in abolition, their general was Ulysses S. Grant. There were several battles; some were the Battle of Manassas, Gettysburg, and War of the Waterways. Yet at the beginning the North started to loses until there flipped the war to start winning with the battle of Gettysburg. After the war came the era of reconstruction were in the United States history in which the nation tried to adjust to the new conditions created by the Civil War.

Union Army (right) Vs. Confederate Army(left) 

            The Civil War had several reasons to go on for 5 years. The Battle of Manassas it made people go for a pick-nick around the battle field, and made the Northerners lose, thus thinking that the South has a bigger army. Another symbolic battle during the Civil War was the Waterways in which the North won over the Mississippi River which extended from the North until the South. This helped the North to control the Mississippi River which was part of the Underground Railroad. Then when the Civil war had its great turning point was in the Battle of Gettysburg, in which Lincoln gave a speech to commemorate the soldiers who fought. The Civil Wars culminate on April 1865 at the Appomattox Courthouse, where General Lee (South) surrenders to General Grant (North).

Gettysburg Battle

            The period known as reconstruction begins to try to adjust to the new conditions created by the Civil War. This time period is one of the United States more important times. The 13^th Amendment to the Constitution was created, thereby abolishing slavery, which promoted the African Americans that were enslaved in the South to stop obeying their owners when they heard that the Union troops were reported to be nearby. The “freed people” took their freedom as something important in which they were free to go wherever they wanted, almost always living around their cotton plantations. During the reconstruction time there was the Freedmen’s Bureau, in March 1865 Congress gave clothing, medical supplies, and millions of meals to refuges of war, both African Americans and white. President Lincoln dies and vice president Andrew Johnson becomes the new president. At the end the reconstruction did not really help, since it was not so equal and it had squandered the opportunity to achieve true equality and social justice, the reconstruction ended in 1877.

Appomattox Court House

             The Civil War ends in 1865 when the Southerner general surrenders to Northern general. Slavery was abolished, yet groups such as the KKK kept racism and not every state in the South gave the African Americans the same rights as the white people, yet most let the African Americans move freely, although most ended living near their old plantations. The Civil War made the Confederate & Union army fight brother vs. brother. The remarkable ending of the war at the Appomattox Court shows that General Lee admits his defeat against the North. Then the years of reconstruction, and reconciliation of the Southern states to unite again to the Union starts, also most of the Confederate Army is pardoned for people to unite again to Union, and be a nation again, the United States. This has a similarity to the United Nations, when they intervene in conflicts around the world to achieve world peace and the solidarity of humanity for the sake of all. 

Chapters 3-5, causes that lead to the Civil War

The Civil War

            When the discoveries of America there were no slaves, but rather people looking for a better future, and future built on dreams. The English came to America by the hundreds, this was back in 1619. The development was just to settle, and it was until the late 1600’s that indenture servants were switched to slaves. Then this would start the expansion of the United States in the East Coast, all the way from the North to the South. Creating problems against the movement to have slavery abolished and make suck act illegal. To think of such matters was an outrage since slavery helped move the economy of the North with its cotton production in the South. Such disputes would cause what was known as the Civil War. A war that lasted 4 years, yet there were reasons for such event to occur.

            One of the central issues of the Civil War was, slavery. Such delicate things influenced power in the Senate and the House of Representatives, so in 1787, all the slaves would be counted in each state and multiplied by three fifths. Power was starting to be fought in the government over which states had more power in congress. During this time the industrial revolution was starting to arise. Giving the North years after earing of $1.5 billion, and $155 million to the South, already there were great economic divisions with development. Then in 1820 there was the Missouri Compromise, which made Missouri a slave sate, and Maine became a state with no slavery to balance the outcomes in the congress. Few years later there were about 50 anti-slavery movements formed in the United States fighting for the right of African Americans to be free. Also another event that started to trigger tension between the North and the South was the African American revolt in 1831 by Nat Turner.

            Congress continued to create rules and laws, one of them was the gag rule in 1836 which for eight years automatic tabled all antislavery petitions and thus prevented them from being read in the House. This type of laws inspired women to reach out for freedom also. Then in 1846, Henry David Thoreau demonstrated the importance of individuals reforming their own lives. This was also part of the newspaper by Frederick Douglas who created an anti-slavery newspaper. It was contradictory during this time period for some of the people who were fighting against slavery to try and act against it when they owned several slaves, this was building tension between the North and the South once again because of the economic impacts and social hypocrisy from the North since it depended on the South to boost its economy with their cotton. During this time also out of 3.2 million African Americans, on the 12% were free men and women.

            After several disagreements, the union could not agree if the South would remain part of the Union. In 1854 Stephen Douglas runs for president and has creates the Kansas Nebraska Act, in which people from that territory would decide whether or not that state would be a slave sate of a free state. Yet people from his own political party did not agree on such acts and decided that he was selling himself to the South by doing this acts. By the year 1860 9 of the 10 largest cities were in the North, and only one in the South. This would mean that the North was having a higher development with its trade and immigration coming from England for example was that people saw slavery as something wrong to do. Also when Texas became part of the US, all people who would go there would be free men. Also people in California and Utah were to decide for themselves if slavery was legal. At the end several of this actions build up to Civil War.

            When it comes to economic matters, and social control it tends to be hard to obtain equality for two sides fighting over who is right, or who is wrong. The steps towards the Civil War were many political and economical actions that people did not cope with produced discomfort among the population of the 19^th century. The North depended on the South, as the South depended on the North. The North needed the cotton from the South to export to the world, becoming a leading country during the 19^th century in cotton, and the South the North with their exportation. There was a supply and demand of slaves that made the revolts for the freedom of slavery. Yet all of this was some of the acts that gave birth to one of the biggest wars in the US, The Civil War, from 1861-1865.

Stephen Douglas