A History of the Civil Rights Movement

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A History of the Civil Rights Movement

North and the South. A series of political compromises kept the nation together. But attitudes on both sides were hardening. THE CIVIL WAR Tensions finally boiled over after Abraham Lincoln was elected president in 1860. Lincoln was against slavery. He was determined not to let it spread into new areas as the United States expanded. But Lincoln had been careful not to promise to end slavery where it already existed. Nevertheless, seven southern states seceded, or withdrew, from the United States between December 1860 and February 1861. They formed their own government, called the Confederate States of America, or simply the Confederacy. On April 12, 1861, Confederate forces fired on Fort Sumter, a U.S. government post in the harbor of Charleston, South Carolina. The attack— and Lincoln’s determination to put down the southern rebellion—prompt ed four more states to join the Confederacy. The Civil War was under way. The war’s outcome would have enormous consequences. If the Confederacy won, the nation would probably be split permanently. Slavery would continue in the South. If, however, the war was won by the Union (the

An African-American sol dier guards a row of can nons in Virginia, 1865. During the Civil War, about 186,000 African Americans fought for the Union Army.