The American Civil War 1860 - 1861: Before the war

In the mid 19th century 33 states and territories - from Atlantic to Pacific - now form a rapidly growing Union: the United States. But divisions between the states are growing too. They are not so united. In the North, centres of industry and commerce are expanding into cities bustling with workers ready to work for money. In the South their ‘way of life’ is about cotton, tobacco, sugarcane, and rice: agricultural products for export.

Huge plantations dominate every aspect of life. The work is hard, and needs many workers. The economy depends on unpaid workers: slaves - whose ancestors were brought from Africa by the slave trade. Hmmm, unpaid work? Is that fair?

Up north, some think it is not fair! These people want to end slavery completely. They find slavery morally unacceptable, for humanist and religious reasons. They are called - Abolitionists. But in both North and South, many think that the Abolitionists are making trouble, and that wanting to free the slaves immediately is extremism!

The Abolitionists help slaves escape to a better life in a slave-free state or in Canada. They organize a secret network of escape routes, safe houses, and guides. This is called the Underground Railroad. But there are no trains. Travel is on foot, during dark nights.

And it’s dangerous. Police patrol the borderlands, hoping to get rewards for returning slaves to the plantations. And Abolitionists are often executed on the spot. This Abolitionist, John Brown, believes that “Slavery is a state of war”. He says that more must be done to free enslaved people.

His goal is to arm the slaves: to liberate the South in a revolution. In October 1859, Brown and a small army of 22 Abolitionists raid a weapon storage - an arsenal - at Harpers Ferry, Virginia. All goes well.. until they are surrounded by armed local people. Brown’s men are trapped.

Soon soldiers arrive, led by Robert E. Lee - who is later to become commander of the Southern army. After a three day fight, most of the Abolitionists are killed. Brown is captured and executed. The raid on Harpers Ferry splits the country.

In the North, Brown is now an anti-slavery hero. In The South there is spreading fear that the slaves will take revenge. In the 1860 election, a new party - the Republican party - says that “the institution of slavery” should be phased out over time. Nobody expects the Republican party leader, Abraham Lincoln to become president. But Lincoln wins, even though no one votes for him in the South.

The slaves can’t vote. In the North, the voters think slavery is outdated. If the old slave-owning ways spread to the new states out west, that’s unfair competition! They are afraid. Many people in the South are also afraid. “We can not bare Northern hostilities towards slavery, ‘Our way of life’ will not be threatened!” Following Lincoln's election, the wealthiest state, South Carolina separates from the United States: it secedes.

In 1861 six other Southern States also secede, and join with South Carolina in an association of sovereign states, called a confederacy: The Confederate States of America. They elect a Southern US senator as their president: Jefferson Davis, who used to be the United States Secretary of War. The South says “goodbye” to the United States, the Union. In Lincoln’s first speech as president, he tries to calm things, and keep the South in the Union by saying, “I have no purpose to interfere with the institution of slavery in the States where it exists. The Union must be maintained.” But a month later, Southern President Davis orders an attack on Fort Sumter, a Union fort off the coast of South Carolina.

The Northern troops in the fort are fired upon by Southerners. Fellow countrymen - and friends - are firing at each other. This is civil war.