The US Civil War

In the early 1800’s, The United States doubled its territory. Each region became its own the North, the South, and the new West. In the North many farm workers moved to cities where they could find work at textile mills.                                                                                            

    In the South, enslaved African Americans worked long hours on plantations. The cotton they picked went to the mills in the Norht and in Europe. Other Americans migrated to western lands. There they built towns, farms, and plantations of their own. The different ways of life led to disagreements. The disagreements became serious that it threatened to tear the United States apart. Throughout the country in Congress and in the newspapers, Americans debated over the issue of slavery, The Northerners saw slavery as immoral, The South saw it as a necesity for their economy. In South Carolina and Georgia and other coastal regions enslaved American Americans made up 50-75% of the population. Many plantation owners feared finacial ruin if slavery was outlawed. The most heated debate was whether new states in the West should allow slavery.Congress made plans to try and statify both the North and South but in the end noone was. Abraham Lincoln, who was against the expansion of slavery was elected President of the United States in 1860. Several states soon left the United States to form a new nation then in 1861 the Civil War began. The Civil war was fought between 23 Northern states called the Union and 11 Southern states called the Confederacy. Southerns in the Confereracy no longer wanted to be a part of the United States.Many Northerners did not think the South had a right to declare itself a separate country. Afrian Americans hoped the Civil War would end slavery.