2017-18_MC_Catalog

MILITARY CONFLICTS

T H E C I V I L WAR

AMERICA’S CIVIL WAR, WAS A CATACLYSMIC EVENT FOR A COUNTRY LESS THAN 100 YEARS OLD. The reasons for war are deep-seated, and the discussion that preceded it was often elegant and persuasive, but the war of words would eventually spin out of control and the shooting war would begin. As the South saws its power and influence begin to slip away, into the hands of the brash and upstart North, its way of life and its entire economy seemed to be at risk. Yet the risk was greater still; it threatened to tear a fragile Union apart that had been created from a diversity of states, in terms of both their history and their culture. Here the roots of the conflict are examined from the political situation before the war to the decision made to wage war on fellow citizens. The Civil War would prove to be the ultimate test for the soldiers who fought and for their country.

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Dixie, theOldSouth

TheOriginsof theCivilWar

BELOW:DiscoveryofNatTurnerby BenjaminPhippsonOctober 30,1831. Engraving byWilliamHenryShelton (1840–1890).

On rareoccasions, resentment over the treatmentof slaveswouldboil over intoopen revolt. In1831,Nat Turner,a slaveownedbyawealthy Virginian farmer, JosephTravis, lead whatbecameknownasNatTurner’s Rebellion.Over the spaceof three months,never involvingmore than around60or soarmedmen,Turner

wasable tokill55whites, though in the endhewas corneredand captured, andTurnerand17of his followers werehanged. Inawhitebacklash against the slaves,up to200 lost their lives,but the“ rebellion ”had terrified thewhitepopulationand rumors spreadof even largeruprisingsacross theSouth.

Witney’s inventionmeant that upland short cotton could be made into amore lucrative crop.However, the unfortunate effect of thiswas that it strengthend the economic requirement for slavery in theUnitedStates. Before the cotton ginwas invented, the seeds from the cotton plant had to be removed byhand, a process that had been time-consuming and labor-intensive.Theword “gin” derived from the shortenedword “engine.”Whitney’s patented,mechanical deviceworked liked a strainer or sieve. The cottonwould be run through awooden drum and a series of hookswould then pull the cotton fibers through a mesh.The seedswould not fit through themesh andwall fall to the outside. It has been reported thatWhitney told a storywherein hewas pondering an improvedmethod of seeding the cotton when hewas inspired by observing a cat attempting to pull a chicken through a fence. Itwas only the feathers thatwould be allowed through. Asingle cotton gin could generate up to 55 pounds (25kg) of cleaned cotton daily.This in turn, contributed to the economic development of theSouthern states, as planters earned great profits, promoting them to grow increasingly more cotton crops.As slaverywas the cheapest form of labor the farmerswould simply purchasemore slaves. Whitney received a patent for his cotton gin invention in 1794, but itwas not validated until 1807.Whitney and his partner,Miller, did not intend to sell the gins.Rather, they expected to charge farmers for cleaning their cotton – two- fifths of the value, paid in cotton.This schemewas ultimately resented by the farmers andwith themechanical simplicity of the device and the primitive state of patent law,made infringement inevitable, so gins from othermakers found ready sales. In the end, patent infringement lawsuits consumed the profits and their cotton gin companywent out of business in 1797. In1817,WhitneymarriedHenrietta Edwards.Theywent on to have four children.Whitney died on January 8, 1825 at 59 years old.

ELIWHITNEY (1765–1825) EliWhitney, famousAmerican inventor is best known for inventing the cotton gin. Itwas one of the key inventions of the industrial revolution.Before theCivilWar the cotton gin was responsible for shaping the economy of theSouth.

to fight against their formermasters. TheSouthwasnot fullof aristocratsasHollywoodwouldhave usbelieve,and thevastmajorityof white farmersdidnotown slaves.They farmedat subsistence levels,unable to

at theheightof theRomanEmpire, butwhen theUnion troops flooded into theSouthern statesduring the AmericanCivilWar, suchwas the reaction from freed slaves that180,000 ormoredonned theblueof theUnion

Therehadbeenother such attempts earlier in the19th century, notablybyGabrielProsser in 1800 andDenmarkVessy in 1822,but neither turned into actual revolts. Thesewere rare,ashadbeen the case

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5 VOLUME SET © 2018

Set ISBN ..........978-1-4222-3881-3 Hardcover Set Price ...........$166.35 Hardcover List Price ..............33.27 Multi-User eBook List Price ...42.60

$124.75 (S&L) 24.95 (S&L) 31.95 (S&L)

Full color • Library bound Trim Size: 8 x 9½ • 80 pages Grade Level: 7-12

HBK ISBN E-ISBN Civil War Victory and the Costly Aftermath ............ -3886-8 -7896-3 Slavery and the Abolition Movement .................... -3883-7 -7893-2 The Battle of Gettysburg – The Turning Point in the Civil War ................................................. -3884-4 -7894-9 The Origins of the Civil War........................................ -3882-0 -7892-5 The Politics of the Civil War..................................... -3885-1 -7895-6

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