The plan failed and Brown and his men were quickly arrested.

1. At dawn of October 16, 1859, a group of men took control of a building in Harpers Ferry, Virginia, where the federal government stored weapons. The leader of the group was an abolitionist named John Brown. The men hoped to start an uprising by handing out the weapons to slaves. The plan failed and Brown and his men were quickly arrested.

2. John Brown was found guilty of treason and hanged. John Brown’s raid added to Southerners’ fears that Northerners would stop at nothing to abolish slavery. Northerners were divided.

3. In 1860, Lincoln was elected President. He said that he would leave slavery alone where it already existed, but he would not allow new states to enter the Union as slave states. How do you think the South felt?

4. The Southern states were talking about seceding. To secede means the states would leave the Union. In December 1860, the state of South Carolina voted to secede. By the following March, Mississippi, Florida, Alabama, Georgia, Louisiana, Texas, and South Carolina had formed a new country, the Confederate States of America, or Confederacy.

5. The Confederacy drafted their own constitution and named a president. The Confederacy President was a United States Senator from Mississippi named Jefferson Davis.

6. Overall, the South was upset because they wanted states’ rights. They believed each state should be allowed to make its own decisions about most issues.

7. When Lincoln took office on March 4, 1861, he promised to “hold, occupy, and possess” all federal property in the Southern states. What do you think federal property means?

8. When Lincoln said he would keep all federal property, this included Fort Sumter. This was a military fort in Charleston, South Carolina. How do you think the Confederacy felt about the Union troops staying at a fort in South Carolina?

9. The Confederacy was mad at the Union for occupying what they thought was Confederate land. The Confederate army attacked!

10. Fort Sumter was the first battle of the Civil War. No one was killed at Fort Sumter, however the battle shook the nation. The Union troops surrendered after just one day.

11. After the battle, Virginia, North Carolina, Arkansas, and Tennessee left the Union. With 11 states, the Confederacy thought it would win a quick victory.

12. But the North also thought THEY would win quickly. The South’s greatest strength was its army. Southern boys grew up riding horses and using guns to hunt. The South also had many well-trained officers.

13. One of the best officers from the South was Robert E. Lee of Virginia. Lee graduated from the United States Military Academy at West Point and had served in the military for more than 30 years. When the war began, Lincoln asked Lee to command the Union army. Lee did not like slavery, but he was loyal to Virginia. He is famous for saying, “I cannot fight against my birthplace.” He quickly became commander of the Confederate army.

14. Only one-fourth of Southerners owned slaves, but many people fought because they were defending their way of life.

15. The North’s strengths were in its population. The North had a larger population and more resources than the Confederacy. This made it possible for the North to build and supply a larger army.

16. The factories in the North were used to make weapons and uniforms for the Union army. In addition, the North was better able to feed a large army. Although the South was a farming area, they mostly grew cotton. Most of the food in the country was grown in the North.