The Civil War Chapter 6

Lesson 1-Breaking Away from the Union The Union is another name for the United States. People in the North and South disagreed on issues such as slavery and states’ rights, or the right to make decisions for itself.

North and South The North and South had very different economies. The North depended on small farms and manufacturing industries that paid workers for their labor. Manufacturing is the process of making goods by hand or with machines.

North and South Many Southern plantations depended on the labor of enslaved people. They thought that having slaves was a way of life. Many Northerners were abolitionists. An abolitionist wanted to abolish, or end, slavery.

North and South States in which people were legally allowed to own slaves were known as slave states. States in which people could not own slaves were known as free states. People could not agree on the issue of slavery, so some Southern states wanted to secede from the Union to protect their right to own slaves. To secede means to withdraw.

Disagreements Other disagreements between the North and South included: Transportation-North wanted the government to pay for it; South wanted each state to pay Land in the West-South was worried that the land would be too small and too expensive Tariffs-North wanted high tariffs; South wanted low tariffs A tariff is a tax on goods that are brought into one country from another to be sold.

Abraham Lincoln When Abraham Lincoln became president, it caused Southerners to become even more concerned. Lincoln was against the spread of slavery to the West. They were afraid he would want to end slavery in the South.

Seceding from the Union In December 1860, South Carolina seceded. Some Alabamians wanted to secede immediately, and some thought Alabama should secede only if other states did. On January 7, 1861, delegates met in Montgomery to discuss whether to secede. 70 out of 100 delegates had enslaved people. Why would this be important? On January 11, the delegates voted to secede from the Union.

The Confederacy By February, four more states had seceded. (Mississippi, Florida, Georgia, and Louisiana) There was a meeting in Montgomery with representatives from all 6 states on February 4, 1861. They organized their own government called the Confederate States of America, and they became an independent country. They elected Jefferson Davis as their president. Montgomery served as the first capital of the Confederacy, but then it moved to Richmond, Virginia because it had the largest population.

The War Begins The Confederacy did not want U.S. troops in their forts. President Lincoln wanted to protect the forts because he considered them U.S. property. So he ordered that supplies be sent to Fort Sumter, South Carolina. This made the Confederacy furious! So they ordered troops to fire on Fort Sumter. The Civil War had begun!

Lesson 2-Alabama in the Civil War After the war broke out, many Alabamians volunteered for military service. They formed 29 regiments, or units of soldiers. African Americans also took part in the war: They fought with their owners on the Confederate side Carried supplies Cared for horses Worked in Confederate army camps Escaped from slavery and joined the Union side Women served as nurses close to the battlefield.

African Americans and Women in the Civil War

Selma Selma, Alabama became an important military supply center because it was close to mineral resources and had good river and rail transportation. The Selma Arsenal made ammunition, such as cannons, shells, and gunpowder. Ships were built at Selma’s Naval Yard.

Fighting in the War Robert E. Lee was the general for the Confederacy. Ulysses S. Grant was the general for the Union. The Battle of Gettysburg was one of the main battles of the war and the Union won. The Union continued to win most of the battles for the next two years. Lee Grant

Ending the War By April 1865, Confederate forces were outnumbered by Union troops. General Lee felt he could do nothing but surrender. Grant accepted Lee’s surrender at Appomattox Court House, Virginia on April 9, 1865. The war was over.

After the War Alabama suffered between 30,000 and 40,000 casualties in the war. A casualty is a person who is injured, killed, or captured during a war. President Lincoln signed and issued the Emancipation Proclamation during the war, which freed enslaved people in Confederate states. In 1865, the 13th Amendment became part of the U.S. Constitution, which abolished slavery throughout the country.

Lesson 3-Rebuilding After the War When the soldiers came home, they saw that Alabama’s infrastructure had been heavily damaged. Infrastructure is the basic systems a society needs in order to function. Plantations and farms had been set on fire. Confederate troops had burned thousands of bales of cotton to stop the Union troops from taking them. Cities were in ruins, rail cars, rail track, rail stations, and steamboats were destroyed. Alabama and other states in the South faced a long period of rebuilding, known as Reconstruction Period.

Rejoining the Union The U.S. government in Washington, D.C. helped many states rebuild. President Andrew Johnson appointed temporary governors for the Southern states. Johnson became President after Lincoln was assassinated. He chose Lewis E. Parsons of Talladega to be the temporary governor of Alabama. Johnson Parsons

Rejoining the Union Parsons began by bringing back all of the laws that Alabama had before the war, except for the laws on slavery. Then, President Johnson outlined the steps that all the Southern states had to take in order to rejoin the Union: 1. A percentage of voters in each Southern state had to take an oath of loyalty to the U.S. 2. Each state had to write a new constitution.

Rejoining the Union Alabama followed President Johnson’s steps, including a new constitution. However, Alabama was not immediately allowed back into the Union. Why? Because they had passed a series of laws known as black codes. Black Codes were laws that limited the rights of African Americans.

Rejoining the Union Congress passed a Reconstruction act, or law, saying that the Southern states had to write new constitutions. These new state constitutions had to give African Americans the right to vote. In November 1867, delegates met again in Montgomery to write a new constitution. Alabama rejoined the Union in 1868! For the first time in Alabama history, there were African American delegates who helped write the new constitution.

The Freedmen’s Bureau The Freedmen’s Bureau helped African Americans who once had been enslaved. They helped feed thousands of Alabamians by providing food to them. They treated patients in hospitals. It opened schools for African Americans who had not been allowed to read and write when they were slaves. They also helped some African Americans get land of their own.

Sharecroppers After the war many people had no money, land, animals, goods, etc. Because of this, some people became sharecroppers. Sharecroppers farmed land that belonged to someone else. A landowner would provide seeds, supplies, food, and shelter. In exchange, the landowner would receive a part of the crop. Many sharecroppers and their families were poor.

Alabama African Americans in Government Benjamin Turner U.S. House of Representatives U.S. Congress Jeremiah Haralson State House of Representatives State Senate U.S. Congress James T. Rapier State House of Representatives State Congress

Reconstruction Scalawags were Southerners who supported Reconstruction. Carpetbaggers were mostly Northerners who had moved to the South and supported Reconstruction. The Ku Klux Klan and the Bourbon Redeemers were against Reconstruction and did not want equality for African Americans.

Reconstruction Ends Some members of the Bourbon Redeemers group were elected to powerful positions in the state government. They wanted to bring back the pre-1868 Constitution and told voters that they would save Alabama from the rule of African Americans. They wrote a new constitution to replace the Reconstruction constitution and this marked the end of Reconstruction in Alabama.