Why Civil War?

In the 1800s, the United States was growing fast, but the North and the South were growing apart. The biggest disagreement was about slavery. The North didn’t want slavery to spread to new states. 

Most people there thought it was wrong. The South, however, wanted to keep slavery because their farms depended on enslaved people to grow cotton and other crops.

Things got more tense when Abraham Lincoln was elected President in 1860. He didn’t plan to end slavery right away, but Southerners didn’t trust him. 

They believed he would try to get rid of slavery and ruin their way of life. So, one by one, Southern states decided to leave the United States. This is called secession.

In early 1861, seven Southern states formed their own country, called the Confederate States of America. They even chose their own president, Jefferson Davis.

Lincoln didn’t want to fight, but he also didn’t want the country to break apart. In April 1861, Confederate soldiers fired on Fort Sumter, a U.S. military fort in South Carolina. This was the first battle, and it officially started the Civil War.

Soon, more states joined the fight. Families were divided, friends became enemies, and a long and bloody war had begun — all over the question of whether the U.S. should allow slavery to continue.