The Civil War

1. The Civil War The Connecticut Adventure Chapter 8

2. A Nation Divided • By the mid 1800s our country had grown and changed • In the North, industry was very important and slavery was against the law. The most powerful people worked in business and industry. • In the South, farming was still the most important part of the economy. Slaves did a lot of the hard work. The most powerful people owned plantations (very large farms).

3. Slavery • More and more people in the North criticized the southern states for allowing slavery. • Most Northerners felt that slavery was wrong. • The Declaration of Independence said that “all men were created equal” yet slaves were treated as property. • Southerners felt they needed the slaves to run the plantations and they did not want the system to change.

4. Slaves at Work • Most slaves worked on plantations. • Men, women and children over six years of age worked 12-14 hour days no matter what! • Slaves may have also cooked, cleaned and taken care of their owners children. • Other slaves learned skilled crafts.

5. Slave Families • Like all people every slave child had parents, but at anytime an owner could sell a slave to someone that lived far away. • At slave auctions, slaves were sold to the highest bidders and families were torn apart, many times they never saw each other again.

6. Slaves Rebel • Slaves had no control of their own lives and could not go to school. • If a slave did something the owner did not like, the owner would beat the slave. • The slaves did not like these conditions. • Some slaves rose up in a rebellion while others ran away. • Others were afraid to rebel or run away so they decided not to work very hard.

7. Mutiny on the Amistad • A group of Africans were kidnapped from their homes and families. • They were chained together and forced into the bottom of a slave ship. • The conditions were horrible and many got sick and died. • Some were sold to Spanish planters and others were boarded another ship called the Amistad.

8. Mutiny on the Amistad • The Africans made a man named John Cinque their leader. • He asked the cook where they were being taken. • The cook joked that they were going to be killed and eaten. • Cinque and the Africans took over the ship, this is called mutiny. • They killed the cook and the captain. • They ordered the crew to take them back to Africa. • The crew headed towards Africa during the day but at night the secretly tried to sail back to Cuba.

9. The Amistad is Spotted • After many days of zig-zagging through the ocean the Amistad ended up in Long Island Sound. • There the Amistad was spotted by an American ship. • The Africans were taken to a jail in New Haven. • It was a long hard fight for their freedom but they won the trial.

10. Harriet Beecher Stowe • Stowe was born in Litchfield, CT. • She was an abolitionist. • When she travelled the country she listened to the stories of slaves that had run away. • She used her imagination to write Uncle Tom’s Cabin which described the horrors of slavery.

11. John Brown • Brown was born in Torrington, CT. • When he was five his family moved to Ohio. • He became one of the most famous abolitionists in America. • He worked to fight slavery in Kansas but he used violence in his fight. • He was arrested and put to death by hanging.

12. The Underground Railroad • The Underground Railroad was not a railroad. • It was a secret system to help slaves escape. • The people who helped the runaways were called conductors, they hid slaves in their homes, barns or churches. • These hiding places were called stations. • Many routes went through Connecticut

13. Things Get Worse • The North and South could not agree about slavery and tempers grew hot. • Abraham Lincoln was elected president, he wanted the states to solve their problems peacefully. • Lincoln was against slavery. • The South decided that it did not want to be a part of this country.

14. The South Leaves the Union • One by one the southern states seceded, they said they were no longer part of the Union. • The southern states formed their own government called the Confederate States of America or the confederacy. • The northern states were called the Union. • There were four slave states that did not leave the Union, they were called border states.

15. War Begins • President Lincoln said that states could not secede. • He would not allow Americans to break up the country. • The Confederacy wanted to be on its own, its men were armed and ready to fight. • Soon a civil war began.

16. Connecticut in the Civil War • 10,000 Connecticut men volunteered to fight for the Union. • Factories in Connecticut made cannons guns, and uniforms for the war. • Connecticut supplied army wagons, buttons for the uniforms, and ships for the Navy.

17. Boys and Women in the War • Most soldiers were at least 18 years old. • Boys as young as 9 played drums for the troops. • Others went to visit their fathers and stayed on to fight. • Many lied about their age. • The boys quickly learned the horrors of war and became homesick and scared.

18. Emancipation Proclamation • The Emancipation Proclamation was issued by President Lincoln in the middle of the war. • It declared that all slaves in the Confederacy were now free. • It did not free the slaves in the border states.

19. The War Comes to an End • After four years of fighting the war ended, the Confederacy lost. • Only days after the war ended President Lincoln was assassinated. • Soon after the war the Thirteenth Amendment was added to the U.S. Constitution, it abolished slavery forever.

20. Let’s Review • What book did Harriet Beecher Stowe write and why was it famous? • Who is Joseph Cinque? • What was the main cause of the Civil War? • Who was the President of the United States during the Civil War? • What were the differences between the North and South?

21. Let’s Review • What was the North’s opinion on slavery? • What was the South’s opinion on slavery? • Describe the conditions on the Amistad • Explain the Amistad’s journey • Why was the 15th Amendment important for African Americans? • What was the life of a Civil War soldier like? • What terrible thing happened after the Civil War ended?