A house splitting in two
A country half-built on enslaved labor and half against it couldn't hold together forever. When Southern states seceded, the Civil War became the violent tearing — and eventual re-stitching — of a nation over the question of slavery.
The Union splits
The central issue dividing the United States was slavery. When Abraham Lincoln was elected in 1860, eleven Southern states seceded to form the Confederacy, and war followed (1861–1865). In 1863 the Emancipation Proclamation declared enslaved people in rebelling states to be free.
1860 Lincoln elected → 1861 secession & war → 1863 Emancipation → 1865 Union victory
Lab · Cause and effect
- Identify the disagreement at the war's root.
- Trace what the Southern states did after the 1860 election.
- Note the document that reframed the war around freedom.
What you should see: Slavery drove secession; the Emancipation Proclamation made ending it an explicit war aim.