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At a Glance The most important ideas for you are: ◗ A series of compromises over several decades attempted to avert open confrontation over slavery between the North and South. ◗ Sectional tension over slavery increased as the United States acquired more territory in the mid-1800s and abolitionists and other opponents of slavery became more outspoken. ◗ Both sides expected the Civil War to be short and each expected to win easily. ◗ From the time of the first military engagement until fall 1864, the war went so badly for the Union that some Northerners wanted to negotiate peace. ◗ When Lincoln issued the Emancipation Proclamation, he effectively changed the focus of the fight from merely preserving the Union to pre- serving the Union while also ending slavery. ◗ Bull Run, Antietam, and Gettysburg were key battles in the war. ◗ Robert E. Lee was the most important general for the South, and Ulysses S. Grant was the most important general for the North. ◗ Sherman’s march to the sea effectively cut the South in half. ◗ The Union forces won major battles each time Confederate forces invaded the North. ◗ Lee surrendered to Grant at Appomattox. ◗ Lincoln’s assassination shortly after the surrender led to conflicts about Reconstruction. ◗ and in Congress clashed over who would oversee the reconstruction of the South; Johnson lost. ◗ A political compromise ended Reconstruction.

What Teachers Need to Know A. Toward the Civil War Abolitionists There had been calls for the abolition of slavery since before there had been a United States. The first formal abolitionist organization was formed in 1787 when a group of free African Americans met in Philadelphia and founded the Free African Society to work for the end of slavery. Although the U.S. Constitution ended the foreign slave trade in 1808, the inter- and intrastate slave trade continued, and by the 1830s, slavery had become entrenched in the Southern states. As the practice of slavery grew, ordinary peo- ple (many of them slaves or former slaves) actively opposed it, giving voice to what became known as the abolitionist movement. History and Geography: American 269 CK_5_TH_HG_P231_324.QXD 2/13/06 1:55 PM Page 270

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Being an abolitionist—especially an outspoken activist—was dangerous. Those who supported slavery often used violence to try to silence critics. They burned the homes and offices of abolitionists, ran abolitionists out of town, and even murdered some. Teaching Idea Among the most notable abolitionists was Frederick Douglass. Douglass was In addition to Frederick Douglass, there an escaped slave who wrote an autobiography describing his life as a slave and who are many interesting people associated later published the abolitionist newspaper North Star. Born on a plantation in with the antislavery movement. You Maryland, he was sold to a new owner and sent to Baltimore. While there, the wife may wish to have students do research of the owner began teaching him how to read but had to stop when her husband in print and online sources to find out discovered what she was doing and forbade her from teaching Douglass any more. about other prominent abolitionists Douglass was very disappointed that his reading instruction stopped, but he felt such as David Walker, Charlotte Forten, fortunate to discover the value of reading by listening to his owner’s arguments Angelina and Sarah Grimké, and F. E. against teaching him. Douglass, now determined to gain these skills, continued to W. Harper. learn to read and write the letters of the alphabet by asking neighborhood boys to help him and sometimes by tricking children into teaching him. At 21, while working in a Baltimore shipyard, he was able to pass himself off as a sailor and get a job on a ship. He landed in New Bedford, Massachusetts. An articulate and pow- Cross-curricular erful writer and speaker, by 1845 Douglass was an important figure in the antislav- Teaching Idea ery movement, writing and lecturing about the inhumanity of slavery. His autobi- The Narrative of the Life of Frederick ography, Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass, was published in London, and Douglass is included in the Language he traveled there to speak out against slavery in the British Empire. 56 Arts section for this grade. It would Douglass was not alone on the abolitionists’ lecture circuit; those who joined make sense to teach this work while him included Sojourner Truth, a former slave, and , a former slave you are studying the pre-Civil War era. and conductor on the . Students learned about both of these women in earlier grades. Influential white abolitionists included William Lloyd Garrison, who pub- lished The Liberator, another abolitionist newspaper. Garrison had begun the paper in 1831 in , a center of the antislavery movement. Garrison’s aim was the immediate end to slavery—without compensating any slaveholder for the loss of his so-called property. Garrison actually advocated that the North should secede from the South. When people pointed out that slavery was protected by the Constitution, Garrison said that any document that supported slavery ought to be burned, even the Constitution. In 1854 he actually did burn a copy of the Constitution, calling out “So perish all compromises with tyranny!” Garrison’s extreme views led to disagreements between him and others, including Frederick Douglass. But Garrison was unapologetic. He wrote: To those who find fault with his harsh language he makes reply: I will be as harsh as truth, and as uncompromising as justice. On this sub- ject, I do not wish to think, or to speak, or write, with moderation. No! no! Tell a man whose house is on fire to give a moderate alarm; tell him to moderately rescue his wife from the hands of the ravisher; tell the mother to gradually extricate her babe from the fire into which it has fall- en; – but urge me not to use moderation in a cause like the present. I am

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in earnest – I will not equivocate – I will not excuse – I will not retreat a single inch – AND I WILL BE HEARD. Garrison’s attacks on slavery made him unpopular in the South. The state of offered a reward for his arrest and conviction, and he received numerous death threats. Even many in the North did not approve of his views. On one occa- sion a Boston mob looped a rope around his neck, as if threatening to hang him, and paraded him through the streets. After the emancipation of the slaves, Garrison continued to work for reform in areas such as temperance and women’s rights. Slave Life The first Africans to be enslaved in the Americas in the early 1500s were brought by the Spanish to the Caribbean to work on farms and in mines. The first Africans in the English colonies on the mainland arrived at Jamestown not long after 1607. The status of these first Africans is believed to have been indentured servants—people who contracted to work for a certain period of time and then were released to work for themselves. The status of Africans changed gradually over the years, and by the 1680s the term of service had changed to lifelong enslavement. By then, it was difficult to find enough workers to farm the large tobacco plantations that white colonists were starting in Jamestown, and captured Africans seemed to promise a steady supply of labor. In the 1700s, importing Africans as slaves for the Southern colonies became big business for white merchants and sea captains. The climate and terrain of were not suitable for large plantation-style farms. Slavery, therefore, did not become the basis for the economy in New England, although there were some slaves in those colonies. New York, for example, had the most slaves of any colony north of Maryland, with over 10,000 slaves, almost 20% of the total pop- ulation, in the mid-1700s. Most of these slaves lived in New York City. Slavery was less important in the Middle Colonies as well. There, most farms were small and tilled by families, although there were slaves on both farms and in cities, where they worked in houses and as skilled artisans and craftworkers. Cross-curricular Teaching Idea The situation was quite different in the South where there were many farms that ranged in size from small, with simple homes, to large, elaborate plantations. Teach the spirituals listed under While most Southerners did not own any slaves at all, the vast majority who “American Musical Traditions” in the owned small farms had fewer than 20 slaves. Only a few farms were large enough Sequence while studying about slav- to be considered plantations with crops—tobacco, indigo, and later, cotton—that ery and slave life. required large numbers of workers. Most plantations had anywhere from 50 to 200 slaves. The plantation system, which the Spanish and Portuguese had devel- oped on islands in the Atlantic, and which had also been established in British colonies in the Caribbean, was adopted to address Southern colonists’ need for workers on these large farms. The owners of the plantations lived in large, well-furnished houses separate from their slaves. The latter lived in the slave quarters, a cluster of small cabins— shacks, really—with a few sticks of furniture, straw for mattresses, a cooking pot, and little else. The slaves often worked in the fields from sunup to sundown. Slaves had little time to themselves to care for their families or tend their own gardens to supplement the food rations they were given by their owners. Enslaved Africans were not paid for their work, so they could not buy extra food, clothes, or other necessities. Everything they had was given to them by their owners. History and Geography: American 271 CK_5_TH_HG_P231_324.QXD 2/13/06 1:55 PM Page 272

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However, in some areas of the South in particular, slaves were able to establish a Teaching Idea trade network to gain cash and goods in exchange for their personal crops and Students learned about slave life in craft goods. earlier grades. This section delves into Slaves could not leave the plantation without permission, and by the early how slaves reacted to their inhumane 1800s laws were established that prohibited slaves from learning to read and conditions. Review with students what write. About the only thing they could do that their owners did not interfere in they know or remember about slave was go to church—as long as it was a Christian service. Slave owners discouraged life. Make sure they understand that the practice of religions that slaves had known in Africa, but slaves did retain slavery has existed in many civiliza- some aspects of their African culture in their religious practice. Slaves also tions and was not a uniquely American embraced biblical stories about freedom, particularly the story of Moses leading phenomenon. Make sure they also the Israelites out of slavery in Egypt. understand the distinctive race-based nature of American slavery. Although Slave Rebellions there were some free blacks and some white indentured servants, the vast Enslaved African Americans found many ways to resist slavery. They broke majority of slaves in the United States tools, lost or misplaced them, worked slowly, and on occasion burned down a were black, and the slave system was slaveholder’s property. Many slaves also attempted to escape from their owners, maintained by and for the benefit of a and others staged rebellions. white elite. Ask students how they As early as 1658, African slaves joined with Native American slaves in might feel if they had been slaves. Hartford, Connecticut, to burn the homes of their owners. Five years later, What might they have done about their African slaves and European indentured servants were caught as they attempted situations? Use this as a lead-in to the a rebellion. Each time a slave uprising took place or a planned uprising was discussion of slave uprisings. exposed by a spy, new, tougher slave codes were passed. Among the regulations might be the banning of meetings of more than two slaves at a time and the adop- tion of slave curfews. A curfew was the time by which all slaves had to be on their Teaching Idea plantation or, if an urban slave, at his or her owner’s house. There are four slave uprisings that stand out, however, for the number of Use Instructional Master 34a–34b, enslaved people involved and the havoc they created in their areas. Slave Rebellions, when discussing each uprising. Stono Uprising • September 9, 1739 • Along the Stono River near Charleston, • Under the leadership of a man named Jemmy, 20 slaves stole weapons from an arsenal and set out for a fort near St. Augustine in Spanish Florida to join a group of slaves who had escaped from South Carolina and Georgia plantations. The men killed people and burned plantations as they went. They were eventually caught and killed by South Carolina militia. Gabriel Prosser Conspiracy • August 30, 1800 • Henrico County, Virginia • Gabriel Prosser and about 1,000 armed slaves marched on Richmond to seize the state capital and kill all whites except Quakers, Methodists, and French. Roads were impassable because of a huge thunderstorm on the night prearranged for the march; in addition, the conspiracy was revealed by two slaves and 600 troops were sent to disperse the rebels; Prosser and 34 others were tried and hanged.

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Denmark Vesey Conspiracy Teaching Idea • May 1822 The information about slave rebellions • Charleston, South Carolina is set up using the journalistic format Denmark Vesey, a former slave who had bought his freedom, and an • of when, where, who, what, and how, unknown number of slaves and free blacks plotted to seize Charleston. or the outcome. The “why” in each • Plot revealed by informant; Vesey and 34 others executed case was to escape and/or end slavery. Nat Turner Rebellion Explain that news reporters answer • August 21 to late October, 1831 these questions about an event as they • Southampton County, Virginia write their articles. Then have students imagine they are reporters. They are to • Nat Turner and seven others were joined by slaves as they went from plan- choose one of the uprisings and write a tation to plantation, gathering a force of about 60 people in all. Through a vision, news report about it answering the “5 Turner became convinced he was to kill whites who enslaved African Americans; W’s and the how.” Talk with students for two months he and his men moved around the area, freeing slaves and killing about whether they are covering “the plantation owners, as well as their wives and children. They killed about 60 people. story” as a modern reporter might • Turner was captured and hanged, and there was a terrible backlash. Many cover it, or as a 19th-century newspa- slaves and free Africans who had nothing to do with the rebellion were beaten and per reporter might have covered it. murdered by vindictive white mobs. The Virginia legislature actually considered How might the coverage differ if the abolishing slavery but decided instead to impose restrictive new laws to keep paper reporting the story was a slaves under control. Northern abolitionist paper? A Industrial North versus Agricultural South Southern proslavery paper? The Civil War, or the War Between the States as it was known in the South, arose out of social, political, and economic differences between the Northern states, where slavery had gradually been abandoned, and the Southern states, Teaching Idea where slavery had become both an economic system and a way of life—even Discuss with students the ethical though most white Southerners did not own slaves. dilemmas posed by a slave rebellion. In reality, there were very few large plantations in the South and many small Students should see the inherent vio- farms. The large plantations had anywhere from 20 to 200 slaves and raised tobac- lence in the tyranny of slavery and co or cotton. The crop depended on whether the plantation was located in discuss the general abuse of slaves. Virginia, , Tennessee, and , where tobacco was the chief Is it permissible to use violence to crop, or in the Deep South, where cotton was king. Small farmers typically raised resist an unjust institution or law? their own food and a small cash crop like tobacco or cotton; usually, they owned Make sure students understand that few, if any, slaves. There were few wealthy small farmers. However, the rich the active, violent rebellions planter with a large plantation worked by hundreds of slaves became the ideal to described here go one step beyond which many poor Southern whites aspired. This ideal took hold in their imagina- the civil disobedience practiced by tions and explains why so many poor Southerners were willing to fight for an Thoreau during the Mexican- institution from which they did not directly benefit. Southern intellectuals devel- American War (see p. 254). oped certain arguments to justify the continued use of human beings as slaves. One argument said that slavery was essential to the Southern economy, which was based on the cultivation of cotton, a very labor-intensive crop. These same white Southerners pointed to the abuse of workers in Northern mills and factories and claimed that slavery was actually preferable to working in such a mill. Slavery, they said, ensured that slaves had food, clothing, and shelter, regardless of whether they were healthy and able to work or too ill or too old to work. Some Southerners made religious arguments and claimed that certain Bible passages seemed to sanction slavery. Another argument used was the racist argument that black people were inherently inferior to whites and needed to be taken care of, like small children. History and Geography: American 273 CK_5_TH_HG_P231_324.QXD 2/13/06 1:55 PM Page 274

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The North by this time had become the center of American industry. Teaching Idea Northern farms were small for the most part and had little potential for great Show the class a picture of a Southern wealth; they could not grow cotton or tobacco or other large-scale cash crops. plantation and a picture of a bustling However, certain parts of the North were well suited to the development of indus- Northern town. Have them write a try, and the Industrial Revolution that had begun in Great Britain had quickly description comparing and contrasting taken hold in the Northeast. The North had reserves of coal to produce power for the scenes. How was the South differ- factory machines, and it had an abundance of people to run the machines. Men ent from the North? What type of people and women were moving away from farms, and thousands of immigrants were would live in each place? Have stu- entering the country every year. By 1860, almost all the industry in the nation, dents share their thoughts aloud. most of the banking and financial centers, most of the rail lines, and most of the coal, iron, and gold reserves in the nation were located in the North.

Teaching Idea Mason-Dixon Line Students may enjoy learning a little The Mason-Dixon Line was established in the 1760s to settle a boundary dis- more about the factories and mills of pute between the Penns of and the Calverts of Maryland. These the North, such as the mills in Lowell, families were descendants of the original proprietors of the two colonies. The line Massachusetts. Web searches for became the boundary between western Pennsylvania and Virginia in 1779. The “Lowell mills” and related terms will Mason-Dixon Line, along with the Ohio River further to the west, was considered turn up interesting descriptions and pri- the dividing line between free and slave states up to the Civil War. mary source documents. The line was named after the two English men who conducted the land sur- vey, Charles Mason and Jeremiah Dixon. Teaching Idea Slavery in Territories and New States Explain that the “Deep South” was the name given to the states of Georgia, Beginning with the Declaration of Independence, when the delegates to the , Louisiana, and . Second Continental Congress removed references to King George’s part in the This is the area where the phrase “King slave trade in order to mollify Southern slaveholders, the United States made Cotton” originated, meaning that cotton compromises over slavery. These compromises did not solve the controversy over was the chief crop and drove not only slavery, but only prolonged it and raised the stakes each time a new compromise the economy but also social and politi- was reached. Among the compromises were the following: cal patterns. You could also review the • In 1787, the Constitutional Convention compromised and agreed to count importance of Eli Whitney and his every five enslaved Africans and African Americans as three free men for purpos- invention of the cotton gin in making es of determining representation in the House. This is known as the three-fifths cotton a profitable crop. clause. The new Constitution did mandate an end to the importation of slaves by 1808 but did not abolish slavery or end the internal slave trade. • In 1820, the Compromise enabled Missouri to enter the Union Teaching Idea as a slave state as long as entered as a free state. In addition, it declared that On a wall map of the United States (or any new states created from the Louisiana Purchase above the 36th parallel would an overhead of a map of the United be free. The ensured the balance between free and slave States such as Instructional Master 35, states, but set the stage for future conflicts over the entrance of new states into The United States of America and the the Union. Confederate States of America), place a • The Compromise of 1850 kept the balance of slave and free states by ruler straight across from the southern allowing California to enter the Union as a free state and the Utah and New border of Pennsylvania into the Atlantic Mexico territories to decide for themselves through popular sovereignty if they Ocean. Ask what students notice about would enter as free or slave states. Congress also abolished the slave trade in the New Jersey. (The southern portion is District of Columbia and passed a Fugitive Slave Act, which required the return actually below the Mason-Dixon Line.) of escaped slaves to their owners.

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• The -Nebraska Act of 1854 took up the issue of slavery in lands above the 36th parallel and overturned the Missouri Compromise. The new law Teaching Idea allowed voters in the two territories to determine for themselves whether the If you have taught Section I on states should be free or slave. Nebraskans voted to become a free state, but bloody Westward Expansion, ask students to fighting broke out in Kansas as pro- and antislavery factions fought each other for relate the Compromise of 1850 to the power and the outcome of the vote. The fighting was so widespread that Kansas Mexican-American War (see pp. became known as “.” 253–254). Make sure they understand that the Compromise of 1850 Dred Scott Decision addressed the question of slavery in the Mexican Cession, the lands Dred Scott was a slave whose owner, an army doctor, had taken him from gained by the U.S. from the Treaty of Missouri (a slave state) to live in (a free state). After two years in Illinois, Guadalupe Hidalgo, which ended the Scott and his owner moved to the Territory to live for two years before Mexican-American War. returning to Missouri. According to the terms of the Missouri Compromise of 1820, slavery was banned in the Wisconsin Territory. When Scott’s owner took him back to Missouri, Scott sued for his freedom on the grounds that he had lived in a territory where slavery was expressly forbidden and had therefore ceased to be a slave. The lawsuit, known formally as Dred Scott v. Sandford, made its way to the Supreme Court. In 1857, seven of the nine justices ruled in favor of Scott’s owner. (It should be noted that five of the seven were Southerners.) Chief Justice Roger B. Taney of Maryland wrote the majority ruling. First, Taney wrote, Scott had no right to sue because he was not a citizen. The Constitution did not recognize slaves as citi- zens. Even if he could have sued, that Scott had once lived in a free state was of no consequence; as a slave, he was the property of his owner. As such, Congress could not deprive an owner of his property. Third, and of the greatest conse- quence to the nation, the justices ruled that the Missouri Compromise was unconstitutional. The justices found that the right to own a slave was a property right and Congress under the Fifth Amendment could not interfere with a per- son’s property rights. As a result of the decision in the Dred Scott case, slavery was allowed in all new territories and, therefore, new states. The South was jubilant; the North was outraged. Uncle Tom’s Cabin Sometimes, books can change history. Uncle Tom’s Cabin, by Harriet Beecher Stowe, is one book that did. Stowe was born into a New England family that was opposed to slavery. She moved to Cincinnati, Ohio, as a young woman, where she saw firsthand what slavery was like. She was moved in particular by a scene she witnessed in which a slave husband and wife were separated and sold to different buyers. Stowe became a writer. Around that time, the Fugitive Slave Act was passed in 1850, outraging abolitionists. Stowe’s sister-in-law challenged her to “write something that would make this whole nation feel what an accursed thing slav- ery is!” In 1852, Stowe published Uncle Tom’s Cabin, which sold more than 300,000 copies in its first year and more than 3 million copies before the outbreak of the Civil War. The novel describes the life of the gentle slave Tom who even- tually dies at the hands of a brutal overseer named Simon Legree. Although some-

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what melodramatic, the novel brought home to thousands of Americans the ter- Teaching Idea rors and brutality of slavery. The novel greatly boosted the antislavery movement Read selections from Uncle Tom’s and created alarm in the South where Southerners felt maligned by the brutal Cabin with the class. Discuss how this depiction of slavery. paid tribute to the impact of the novel novel changed history. Then, have stu- when, during the Civil War, he characterized Stowe as “the little woman who dents create a poster advertising either caused this big war.” the sale of the novel Uncle Tom’s Cabin During the years since Stowe’s novel was published, the term “Uncle Tom” or a theatrical production based on it. has taken on a life of its own. In the book, Tom accepts the great suffering that The novel was dramatized and played comes upon him, in part because of his strong Christian faith. Among African in many cities in the North. Americans today, the phrase “Uncle Tom” is sometimes used to attack a black per- son who is perceived as being too accepting of an inferior position in society and too eager to please whites in positions of authority. John Brown and Harpers Ferry Today, John Brown would be called an extremist. He believed in the use of force to further his cause—in this case, the end of slavery. And he was willing to die to achieve his goals. Brown claimed he was a devout Christian and believed slavery was a terrible sin. He met and corresponded with the abolitionist Frederick Douglass. Douglass described Brown as a true friend of the black man: “Though a white gentleman, he is in sympathy a black man, and as deeply interested in our cause, as though his own soul had been pierced with the iron of slavery.” In the 1850s, Brown participated in the bloodshed in the Kansas Territory over the fight to ban slavery. He and his sons were involved in the killing of five settlers who held proslavery beliefs. Brown soon returned to the East and hatched a plot to establish a nation of free African Americans in Virginia. His plan was to take over the federal arsenal at Harpers Ferry, a town in northern Virginia (now northeast West Virginia), and call for slaves to stage an uprising with the weapons from the arsenal. On the night of October 16, 1859, with about 18 supporters, including five Africans, Brown raided the arsenal at Harpers Ferry and took hostages, but no additional slaves joined him and the anticipated uprising never happened. However, news of his seizure of the arsenal spread and soon the building was surrounded by a company of Marines that included a contingent led by Robert E. Lee. By morning, the raiders were either dead or captured. Brown was tried for treason and hanged. While Southerners mostly felt Brown got what he deserved, his death stirred more antislavery feeling in the North. Brown’s conviction of his righteousness caused many Northerners to see him as a martyr. In his speech to the court at his trial, Brown said: I believe that to have interfered as I have done, as I have always freely admitted I have done, in behalf of his despised poor, I did not wrong but right. Now, if it is deemed necessary that I should forfeit my life for the furtherance of the ends of justice, and mingle my blood further with the blood of my children and with the blood of millions in this slave coun- try whose rights are disregarded by wicked, cruel, and unjust enact- John Brown ments, I say let it be done. 57

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Brown also issued an ominous warning about the future: “I, John Brown, am now quite certain that the crimes of this guilty land will never be purged away but with blood.” Brown was remembered in a popular song of the era, “John Brown’s Body.” A version current during the Civil War went like this: John Brown’s body lies a-moulderin’ in the grave, John Brown’s body lies a-moulderin’ in the grave, John Brown’s body lies a-moulderin’ in the grave, But his soul goes marching on. CHORUS: Glory! Glory! Hallelujah! Glory! Glory! Hallelujah! Glory! Glory! Hallelujah! His soul goes marching on. He captured Harper’s Ferry with his nineteen men so true; He frightened old Virginia ’til she trembled through and through. They hanged him for a traitor, themselves the traitor’s crew, His soul goes marching on. During the Civil War, Julia Ward Howe took the melody from “John Brown’s Body” and wrote new lyrics to create her “Battle Hymn of the Republic.” Abraham Lincoln Abraham Lincoln was born in poverty on the Kentucky frontier and grew up in a log cabin that his father had built. There was no mandatory public education at the time. Children were expected to work in the family business, whether it was a farm or a store. As a boy, Lincoln taught himself to read and write by fire- light at the end of his long workdays on the farm. He read the Bible, Aesop’s Fables, Robinson Crusoe, and (later) Shakespeare’s plays. Lincoln grew to be tall (as an adult he stood about 6'4") and strong. He was a rail splitter and a cham- pion wrestler in his youth. At age 22, he moved to New Salem, Illinois, also a frontier area. He taught himself the law while supporting himself by working in a store, as a surveyor, and as postmaster. In time, Lincoln became a much-respected attorney in the state. He also earned a reputation for honesty: he was known as “honest Abe.” Lincoln was first elected to public office in 1834 when his district sent him to the state legislature. He served there until 1841. Lincoln ran successfully for the U.S. House of Representatives in 1846, but was turned out of office in the next election because of his opposition to the Mexican-American War. Although defeated in his Senate bid in 1858 against Democrat Stephen A. Douglas, Lincoln’s oratorical skills and his opposition to the expansion of slavery won him attention from the new national Republican Party, which nominated him for president in 1860. In his speech to the Illinois State Republican Convention, which nominated him to face Douglas in the 1858 Senate race, Lincoln said:

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A house divided against itself cannot stand. I believe this [federal] gov- ernment cannot endure permanently half slave and half free. I do not expect the Union to be dissolved; I do not expect the house to fall; but I do expect it will cease to be divided. It will become all one thing, or all the other. 59

Lincoln-Douglas Debates During the campaign for a seat from Illinois, Lincoln and the incumbent Stephen A. Douglas met in seven debates. One of the most important issues they debated was whether Douglas supported the Dred Scott decision or whether he supported the doctrine of popular sovereignty. The latter meant that the people had the right to determine for themselves by voting if they wanted to extend slavery to their territory. This had been the basis of the Compromise of 1850 and the Kansas-Nebraska Act. Douglas had proposed this solution himself in the Kansas-Nebraska Act. By asking Douglas this question, Lincoln placed him on the spot. Douglas still supported the idea of popular sovereignty, but the Democratic Party, many of whose supporters were Southerners, had come out in favor of the decision in the Dred Scott case. Douglas formulated what has become known as the Freeport Doctrine. He hedged and said that if the people so wished, a territorial legislature could discourage slavery by failing to pass laws that recognized the right of slave ownership. Thus, acting on the will of the people, the legislature would subvert the decision in Dred Scott. 58 Douglas succeeded in the short term. He won reelection to the Senate. But Southerners called the Freeport Doctrine “the Freeport Heresy.” The long-term future of a Democratic Party that could satisfy both Northerners and Southerners was in question. The debates also catapulted Lincoln to national fame and set the stage for his presidential run in 1860. Election of Lincoln as President The issue of slavery divided the nation in the election of 1860. Lincoln was selected as the candidate of the new Republican Party, which pledged to stop the spread of slavery. He ran against three opponents. Neither the Republican Party nor Lincoln himself promised to abolish slavery. The Democratic Party had split into Northern and Southern factions and supported two different candidates. A fourth party, the Constitutional Party, campaigned on a platform to uphold the Union and the Constitution. The vote was largely split along regional lines. Even though Lincoln captured less than 40 percent of the popular vote, the sectional split of the country allowed him to receive more than enough electoral votes to win the election. Southern States Secede South Carolina had threatened to secede if Lincoln was elected. In November 1860, a few weeks after the election, South Carolina made good on its word and passed an in December of 1860. By spring 1861, eleven states had joined to form the Confederate States of America. (The western part of Virginia refused to follow the rest of the state out of the Union, and in 1863 it joined the Union as the state of West Virginia.) The eleven states of the Confederacy were Alabama, Arkansas, Florida, Georgia, Louisiana, Mississippi, North Carolina, South Carolina, Tennessee, Texas, and Virginia. 278 Grade 5 Handbook CK_5_TH_HG_P231_324.QXD 2/13/06 1:56 PM Page 279

The Union included the states of the Northeast and Midwest and the western territories: Connecticut, Illinois, Indiana, Iowa, Kansas, Maine, Massachusetts, Minnesota, , New Jersey, New York, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, Vermont, and Wisconsin; Indian Territory; and the Colorado, Dakota, Nebraska, New Mexico, Nevada, Utah, and Washington Territories. Delaware, Kentucky, Maryland, Missouri, and West Virginia were known as border states. They remained loyal to the Union even though they were slavehold- ing states. Teaching Idea Create an overhead from Instructional B. The Civil War Master 35, The United States of When the Southern states seceded in 1861, Lincoln declared their act uncon- America and the Confederate States stitutional. He threatened to use force if necessary to protect United States prop- of America, and duplicate one copy erty, enforce United States laws, and return the Southern states to the Union. per student. Have students do Preservation of the Union continued to be his primary goal throughout the war. research to label the states that (Later he added emancipation of slaves.) Lincoln viewed the war as a rebellion by remained in the Union, those that the Southern states. seceded, and those known as “border Southerners took a very different view. They saw the creation of the states.” After students have complet- Confederacy in 1861 as exactly analogous to the American Revolution of 1776. ed their own maps, use the overhead In both cases, a set of states seceded from a larger government and exercised their to repeat the activity as a whole right to declare independence. The Southerners believed they were resisting the group exercise. tyranny of Lincoln and the North, and preserving states’ rights, just as the Alternatively, read aloud the state colonies had resisted the tyranny of King George III and the British Parliament in names to students and have them 1776. decide in which category they fit and where they are on the map. Have stu- Fort Sumter dents label the states and complete the map key. This is also a good exer- Lincoln’s resolve was soon tested. Fort Sumter was a federal military base in cise in forming mental maps of the Charleston Harbor, South Carolina. When South Carolina seceded, the fort’s com- Union and the Confederacy. mander, Major Robert Anderson, was ordered to surrender the fort. He refused and the Confederates cut off the fort by firing on a ship sent with additional troops and provisions. Lincoln ordered another supply ship be sent to resupply the fort. The Confederates again opened fire on the ship and the fort and eventu- Name Date The United States of America and the ally forced Anderson to surrender. Lincoln declared that the shelling of Fort Confederate States of America Label the states on the map: a) states that remained in the Union; b) border states; and c) states that became the Confederate States of America. Color them in three Sumter was an act of rebellion against the U.S. government. The Civil War had different colors, and then use the same colors to complete the map key.

begun. New Hampshire WashingtonWashington Vermont MaineMaine TerritoryTerritory Massachusetts DakotaDakota MinnesotaMinnesota TerritoryTerritory OregonOregon WisconsinWisconsin NewNew An eyewitness to the events was Mary Chesnut, whose husband was the YorkYork MichiganMichigan Rhode Island PennsylvaniaPennsylvania Connecticut NebraskaNebraska TTerritoryerritory IowaIowa New Jersey OhioOhio NevadaNevada IndianaIndiana Delaware negotiator for the Confederate side. The following is her account of the evening TerritoryTerritory IllinoisIllinois WestWest Maryland UtahUtah VirginaVirgina TerritoryTerritory ColoradoColorado TerritoryTerritory VirginaVirgina KansasKansas MissouriMissouri CaliforniaCalifornia KentuckyKentucky NorthNorth CarolinaCarolina TennesseeTennessee of April 12, 1861, when the war began: IndianIndian SouthSouth NewNew MexicoMexico TerritoryTerritory ArkansasArkansas CarolinaCarolina TerritoryTerritory MississippiMississippi GeorgiaGeorgia AlabamaAlabama ATLANTIC OCEAN PACIFIC TexasTexas I do not pretend to go to sleep. How can I? If Anderson does not accept LouisianaLouisiana OCEAN

FloridaFlorida Union states, 1861 N Confederate states, 1861 Gulf of Mexico terms at four, the orders are, he shall be fired upon. I count four, St. W E Border states 0 250 500 miles Territories S Michael’s bells chime out and I begin to hope. At half-past four the heavy 0 250 500 kilometers booming of a cannon. I sprang out of bed, and on my knees prostrate I prayed as I never prayed before. . . . I knew my husband was rowing about in a boat somewhere in that Purpose: To read a U.S. map and label the Union states, the border states, and the Confederate states Copyright ©Core Knowledge Foundation Copyright ©Core dark bay, and that the shells were roofing it over, bursting toward the Master 35 Grade 5: History & Geography fort. If Anderson was obstinate, Colonel Chesnut was to order the fort on Use Instructional Master 35. one side to open fire. Certainly fire had begun. The regular roar of the cannon, there it was. And who could tell what each volley accomplished of death and destruction? History and Geography: American 279 CK_5_TH_HG_P231_324.QXD 2/13/06 1:56 PM Page 280

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Cross-curricular Teaching Idea Even before the first guns had been fired, representatives for the secessionist Go to the Internet and find examples of states had met in Montgomery, Alabama in February 1861 and formed the Civil War music and photographs to Confederate States of America (CSA). It was eventually decided that Richmond, help the facts of the Civil War come to Virginia, would be the capital. Jefferson Davis was elected president. life. (See More Resources.) In addition, Davis had represented Mississippi for several terms in the United States “Battle Hymn of the Republic” from the Senate and had been the secretary of war under Franklin Pierce. When Grade 5 music Sequence lends itself Mississippi seceded, he had resigned from the Senate. It was his direct order that well to this unit of study. You may also launched the attack against Fort Sumter. wish to review songs from Grade 2, Davis was a West Point graduate who had gained national fame as a hero in including “Follow the Drinking Gourd” the Mexican-American War. His prestige was an asset to the Confederacy. But as and “When Johnny Comes Marching a leader, Davis was high-handed and divisive, feuding throughout the war with Home.” Southern governors over military, fiscal, and political affairs. The Union and Confederacy The Union had many advantages over the Confederacy. The North had a larg- er population than the South. The Union also had an industrial economy, where- as the Confederacy had an economy based on agriculture. The Union had most of the natural resources, like coal, iron, and gold, and also a well-developed rail system. Most of the financial centers were in the North, which made borrowing money to fight the war difficult for the South. The Union had a small navy, but the Confederacy had to resort to using private ships because it had no naval ves- sels. While some believed the South had the better officers, the North had twice Teaching Idea as many soldiers. Use Instructional Master 83, Venn and Rebels, Blue and Gray Diagram, with students to compare “” and “Rebel” are nicknames that the Northerners and Southerners and contrast the Union and the gave each other shortly after the start of the Civil War. The Northerners were Confederacy. called “Yankees” and the Southerners, “Rebels.” Sometimes these nicknames were shortened even further to “Yanks” and “Rebs.” At the beginning of the war, each soldier wore whatever uniform he had from his state’s militia, so soldiers were wearing uniforms that didn’t match. For example, some uniforms were blue or gray, while others were black or red. As the war dragged on, that changed. The soldiers of the wore blue uniforms and the soldiers of the Confederate Army wore gray. Today, that’s how many people remember the two sides—the North wore blue, and the South wore gray. Neither side—North or South—had a realistic view of what it would take to fight the war in terms of time and resources. Each side thought the war would be short and easily won. The outcome of the first engagement of the war greatly bolstered Confederate confidence and jolted the Union into a realization of how hard it would be to defeat the South. The first battle was fought in July along Bull Run Creek near Manassas Junction, Virginia, just 20 miles from Washington. Many civilians rode out from Washington thinking to spend an interesting afternoon watching the Confederates get a good thrashing. Some even brought picnics to eat while they 280 Grade 5 Handbook watched the confrontation. Instead, the Confederates fought tenaciously and ulti- CK_5_TH_HG_P231_324.QXD 2/13/06 1:56 PM Page 281

mately overwhelmed the Union forces, who retreated willy-nilly back to Washington. It was anything but an orderly retreat as the raw troops sprinted back to safety, leaving the civilians to hurry back as best they could. Fortunately for the Union, the surprised and elated Confederates, who were also untrained, disorganized, and exhausted, were not in a position to press their advantage and pursue the fleeing soldiers. The Battle of Bull Run is also known as the Battle of Manassas. The Confederates often named battles according to nearby towns. The Union troops often referred to them according to nearby geographical features, like rivers and Teaching Idea creeks. Create an overhead of Instructional Master 36, The Civil War, 1861–1865, Ulysses S. Grant and Robert E. Lee to help students understand where Although the Union had the advantage because of the size of its army, both some important battles took place. sides had excellent leadership. The start of the war went badly for the Union, both Point out that many battles were on the western front along the Mississippi and in the east. Union generals in the also fought in the Mississippi Valley. east had opportunities to strike at the Confederate army, but the generals often There, General Grant earned his repu- hesitated. Lincoln became particularly upset with General George McClellan. tation as a tough fighter; this is why After McClellan hesitated to attack several times, Lincoln relieved him of his Lincoln chose him to command the command. entire Union Army. The first victories for the Union came in 1862 under General Ulysses S. Grant. Grant captured Fort Donelson in Tennessee. When the Confederates in the fort inquired about terms of surrender, Grant replied that no terms but “uncon- Name Date ditional surrender” would be accepted. People began to refer to him as The Civil War, 1861–1865 “Unconditional Surrender” Grant. Study the map. Then use it to answer the questions below. Pennsylvania Philadelphia Gettysburg Ohio July 1-3, 1863 New Jersey

Indiana AntietamAntietam Illinois Sept.Sept. 17,17, 11862862 Delaware 1st1st BattleBattle ooff BullBull RRunun In the same year, Admiral Farragut scored a major victory for the Union West JulyJuly 21,21, 18611861 Virginia Maryland Missouri (1863) Virginia Richmond Hampton Roads Battle of Monitor v. Virginia (formerly Merrimack) Kentucky March 9, 1862 when his squadron of ships defeated the Confederate defenses in AppomattoxAppomattox CCourtourt HHouseouse LeeLee SSurrendersurrenders ttoo GGrantrant Apr.Apr. 9,9, 18651865

N Tennessee Durham North Carolina and took the city. This victory secured the lower Mississippi River for the Union W E S

Arkansas South Carolina ATLANTIC Atlanta OCEAN and was a major blow to the Confederacy. Another turning point in the war Charleston Mississippi Alabama Fort Sumter Georgia Apr. 12-14, 1861

Savannah occurred in 1863, when Grant defeated the Confederate troops in Vicksburg, Major battle Sea battle Louisiana

New Orleans Florida Mississippi. Grant’s victories there and in Tennessee gave the Union control of the 0 150 300 miles Gulf of Mexico 0 150 300 kilometers Mississippi River, split the Confederacy, and effectively ended the war in the west. 1. When did the opening battle of the Civil War take place at Fort Sumter? April 12–14, 1861

Union control of the Mississippi River cut off the flow of much-needed supplies 2. According to this map, in which state were the most major battles fought? Virginia and reinforcements from Texas and Arkansas to the rest of the Confederacy. In 3. What kind of battle took place at Hampton Roads on March 9, 1862? 1864, Lincoln consolidated command of all the Union armies under Grant. a sea battle 4. Where and when did General Robert E. Lee surrender to General Ulysses S. Grant? Grant moved to the eastern front and began a long, punishing attack on the Appomattox Court House in Virginia on April 9, 1865 Purpose: To read and interpret a U.S. map featuring the states that took part in the Civil War Copyright ©Core Knowledge Foundation Copyright ©Core Confederate Army of Northern Virginia, a force led by Robert E. Lee. By April Master 36 Grade 5: History & Geography 1865 Grant’s men had worn down and defeated the Confederates. Grant accept- ed Lee’s surrender in the little town of Appomattox Court House, Virginia. Grant Use Instructional Master 36. went on to become the eighteenth president of the United States in 1872. Grant and Lee are often compared, as they had lived two strikingly different lives prior to becoming rival generals in the last years of the Civil War. Grant was born on a small Ohio farm, whereas Robert E. Lee was born on a large plantation in northern Virginia. (Lee’s plantation was seized by Union forces and became the Teaching Idea site of Arlington National Cemetery.) Grant was a mediocre student at the U.S. Use Instructional Master 83, Venn Military Academy at West Point and had an undistinguished military career Diagram, with students to compare before the Civil War. He had failed in business and was rumored to be a heavy and contrast Grant and Lee. drinker. Lee also graduated from West Point but was at the top of his class. He

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had a highly successful military career. He served with distinction in the Mexican- American War, was superintendent of West Point for a period in the 1850s, and was in command of the troops at Harpers Ferry that captured John Brown. At the beginning of the war, Lincoln asked Lee to assume command of the Union forces, but Lee refused out of loyalty to his home state, Virginia. He instead accepted a command in the Confederate army. Lee scored a number of important victories, but faced with dwindling resources, his army was unable to withstand the larger, better-equipped Union army. General Cross-curricular General Thomas Jackson was given the nickname “Stonewall” because of his Teaching Idea actions in the First Battle of Bull Run. During the battle, a Confederate soldier “Stonewall” Jackson is described in noted that Jackson and his men were “standing like a stone wall.” The nickname “Barbara Freitchie,” listed in the poetry stuck: for the rest of the war Jackson was known as “Stonewall Jackson.” selections for this grade. You may wish Considered by many to be General Lee’s most able general, Jackson orches- to teach this poem in conjunction with trated Confederate victories in the Shenandoah Valley campaign. He led his forces your discussion of Jackson and the bat- brilliantly at the Second Battle of Bull Run, and at the battles at Antietam and tles in the east. Fredericksburg. He was wounded in 1863 during the battle of Chancellorsville and died eight days later. Battle of the USS Monitor and the CSS Virginia The Union had a great advantage in the naval war and used its advantage to blockade Confederate ports. But in March 1862, the Confederacy struck back. The CSS Virginia steamed out of its port at Hampton Roads, Virginia, and attacked and sunk several Union ships. The Virginia was no ordinary ship. It had original- ly been a Union ship called the Merrimack, but the Confederates had plated its sides with iron. Now Union cannonballs bounced harmlessly off its sides. The Confederates hoped to sail their ironclad ship up the Potomac, sinking Union ships, and possibly even shelling Washington, D.C. The Confederate hopes were short lived, however. The next day a Union ironclad ship called the Monitor battle between the Monitor and the Virginia steamed out to meet the Virginia. The Monitor had a distinctive design, with a small, rotating turret on top of the main body of the ship. The battle between the two ironclads was a draw, as neither ship was able to harm its adversary. But the Teaching Idea Southern threat had been countered, and the era of wooden warships had come to a sudden end. 60 Share pictures of the Monitor and the Virginia with students. Point out the Monitor’s design, with the rotating gun Creek turret. Note that the idea of a rotating In September 1862, Lee started to move his troops north toward Washington. gun turret would be important in the In a fierce battle, Lee’s forces were driven back at Antietam Creek, Maryland, by development of both ships and tanks. a Union army under General George B. McClellan. Antietam was the bloodiest single-day battle of the war—almost 23,000 men were killed or wounded. More than 8,000 died in a single cornfield. When the day began, the field was full of tall, ripe corn. By the end of the day, cannons, rifles, and charging troops had decimated the corn so that “every stalk of corn in the northern and greater part of the field was cut as closely as could have been done with a knife.”

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Although the Union forces suffered higher casualties, Antietam was consid- ered a victory for the Union because it halted Lee’s invasion of the North. The war Teaching Idea in the east had been going badly for the Union up to this point, and this victory Use the Internet to locate photo- was important for several reasons. First, it saved Washington, D.C., the capital of graphs and other images of key bat- the Union. Second, it kept Great Britain and France from recognizing or assisting tles as well as soldiers’ recollec- the Confederacy, and, third, it provided the opportunity that Lincoln had been tions. These can be found using looking for to issue the Emancipation Proclamation. He had not wanted to issue search engines. it while the Union had been losing and have it appear an act of desperation. The Emancipation Proclamation During the early years of the Civil War, Lincoln was eager to issue an Teaching Idea Emancipation Proclamation freeing slaves, but he hesitated to do so for fear that You will want to use an overhead of his action might harm the Union cause. Emancipating the slaves was an idea Instructional Master 36, The Civil opposed by many Northern workers who feared competition from newly freed— War 1861–1865, frequently in this sec- and jobless—slaves. Lincoln was also concerned that the border states would tion to help students visualize where leave the Union if slave owners there were deprived of their slaves. On the plus the action was taking place. You may side, however, Lincoln believed that an Emancipation Proclamation would win also want to keep a graphic organizer over Europeans who had already abolished slavery, especially the British. It was or time line that lists names, dates, important to Lincoln that the British not trade with the South. If the South could and outcomes of key events. sell its cotton to the British, it could gain money and buy supplies to help with the war effort. Abolitionists had lobbied for the end of slavery since the early 1800s, and as the war continued, more Northerners began to see the need for emancipation. In addition to humanitarian concerns, they were moved by a desire to punish the South for secession. Finally, in September 1862, after Lee was stopped at Antietam, Lincoln issued the Emancipation Proclamation. The proclamation was to go into effect on January 1, 1863. There is often confusion about what the Emancipation Proclamation actually did. The document promised to free all slaves in those states or parts of states still under the control of the Confederacy on January 1, 1863. Since the Union did not control most areas of the Confederacy, there was no practical effect on the lives of slaves in those states. The document also did not affect slaves in border states or in states or areas of states under the control of the Union army. (Lincoln did not want to drive the border states into an alliance with the South.) In those areas, slaves were still enslaved. Therefore, the Emancipation Proclamation actually set no one free. The importance of the Emancipation Proclamation was symbolic. It changed Teaching Idea and broadened the goals of the Civil War. What had begun as merely a struggle Have the class brainstorm a list of the to preserve the Union was now also a quest to free the slaves. In 1865, enslaved symbols of America, as these have African Americans were finally freed through passage and ratification of the been studied in Core Knowledge Thirteenth Amendment (see p. 290). schools since Kindergarten. Expand the list to include symbolic docu- Gettysburg ments such as the Emancipation In the summer of 1863, Lee invaded the North again, for what would be the Proclamation. Continue adding to the last time. Lee began to move northward in June in the hope that a successful inva- list throughout the school year. sion of the North would convince the Union to end the war. He reached Pennsylvania by July 1 and met Union forces under General George S. Meade near the town of Gettysburg.

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The battle raged for three days. Union forces had a tactical advantage in occu- pying higher ground. Lee, in an effort to dislodge the Union forces, sent General George Pickett and an army of 15,000 men across a mile of open ground. Pickett’s charge was a disaster. Union gunners cut down the courageous charging Confederates. Pickett’s division alone lost almost 3,000 men. After the charge, when Lee ordered Pickett to reassemble his division to prepare for a possible Union counterattack, Pickett replied, “General Lee, I have no division now.” Lee regretted the decision to order Pickett’s charge for the rest of his life. After three days of attacks and counterattacks, with the Confederates making no headway, Lee turned his army southward on July 4. The Confederates had lost about a quarter of their forces in the field; about an equal number of Union soldiers were killed, amounting to more than 20,000 dead on each side. The was the turning point of the war in the east. Lee never again threatened Union territory. Unfortunately for the Union side, Meade failed to pursue the gravely weakened Lee. Through his military genius, Lee was able to continue the war for two more years and inflict terrible casualties on Union forces. This was despite being badly outnumbered and suffering from crit- ical shortages of materials. Gettysburg Address Later that year, on November 19, 1863, President Lincoln journeyed to Gettysburg to dedicate a national cemetery for the war dead buried there. Lincoln was not the featured speaker. Edward Everett, a well-known orator of the time, spoke for more than two hours. Lincoln’s speech lasted about two minutes. In the speech, Lincoln spoke of his grief for the dead, the principles for which they died, and the need to maintain those principles. Among its famous lines are the follow- ing: Four score [twenty years times four] and seven years ago our fathers brought forth on this continent, a new nation, conceived in liberty, and dedicated to the proposition that all men are created equal. . . . It is for us the living, rather, to be dedicated here to the unfinished work Teaching Idea which they who fought here have thus far so nobly advanced. It is rather Work with students to paraphrase the for us to be here dedicated to the great task remaining before us—that Gettysburg Address to help them under- from these honored dead we take increased devotion to that cause for stand the depth of Lincoln’s beliefs and which they gave the last full measure of devotion—that we here highly his feelings toward his country and the resolve that these dead shall not have died in vain—that this nation, soldiers who died for it. Read the first under God, shall have a new birth of freedom—and that government of part of the Declaration of Independence the people, by the people, for the people, shall not perish from the earth. to students, and point out how Lincoln Although Lincoln’s speech is now recognized as one of the most important in carefully linked his brief speech to the American history, it received little attention that day and in subsequent news central tenets of that document. Invite reports. Everett, however, recognized its significance. In a note to Lincoln he students to read parts of the speech out wrote, “I should be glad if I could flatter myself that I came as near to the central loud and possibly even memorize brief idea of the occasion, in two hours, as you did in two minutes.” passages. (See “Speeches,” on pp. 83–90 and Text Resource 31.) 54th Massachusetts Regiment When the Civil War began, there was no thought given to enlisting free African Americans. However, after a string of Union losses in 1862, Congress passed a law allowing African Americans—freemen and escaped slaves—to become soldiers in the Union army. By war’s end, 186,000 African Americans had 284 Grade 5 Handbook CK_5_TH_HG_P231_324.QXD 2/13/06 1:56 PM Page 285

served in 150 all-black regiments and 30,000 more African Americans had seen service in the navy. The first African-American regiment was led by Thomas Cross-curricular Wentworth Higginson. All told, about 13 percent of the Union army was com- Teaching Idea posed of men of color. This number does not count the African-American men You may wish to show students the and women who served as cooks, laborers, and carpenters for the army. Some reproduction of the Shaw Memorial, 37,000 African-American soldiers died for the Union during the war. Twenty included in the Art Resources for this African-American soldiers were awarded the Congressional Medal of Honor, and grade and discussed in the Visual between 75 and 100 were commissioned as officers. Arts section “American Art: One of the most notable of the African-American regiments was the 54th Nineteenth-Century United States,” Massachusetts under Colonel Robert Gould Shaw, a white officer. White officers on pp. 350–360. The Shaw Memorial commanded units of African-American soldiers. The 54th led the assault on Fort was created by Augustus Saint- Wagner at Charleston, South Carolina in 1863. According to one account, Gaudens to commemorate the 54th Advancing through the cover of darkness along a narrow strip of beach, Massachusetts regiment. A copy of they [the 54th] were raked by ferocious rifle and cannon fire from the the memorial is on display in Boston fort. They pressed on and scaled the parapets in desperate hand-to-hand Common, near the site of the troops’ fighting. White regiments arrived to bolster the Union force, but the men departure to fight in the Civil War. were too few and the enemy fire too fierce. The assault failed, and 300 soldiers of the 54th died in the attack. Four sol- diers were awarded medals for their bravery, including the first Congressional Teaching Idea Medal of Honor awarded to an African American. The Union Army was segregated dur- Sherman’s March to the Sea ing the Civil War. In fact, the United States Army remained segregated As Lee had taken the war to the North, Union General William Tecumseh until 1948, when President Harry Sherman took the war to the heart of the South. Sherman (named after the Truman signed Executive Order 9981, famous Native American warrior) was promoted often to replace Grant as Grant which ordered the armed forces to be took on greater responsibilities for the Union army. In 1864, Sherman and his integrated. Have students reflect in force of 60,000 soldiers invaded Georgia from Tennessee, captured and burned journals about why it would be per- Atlanta, marched to the coast where they captured Savannah, and then wheeled ceived to be important for the Union north. They engaged the Confederate army of General Joseph E. Johnston in a Army to be segregated. What are their running fight until Johnston surrendered near Durham, North Carolina. thoughts? You may want to have a Sherman’s campaign effectively split the Confederacy. discussion about their answers to Sherman’s advance through Georgia to Savannah is known as Sherman’s that question. “march to the sea.” In an effort to destroy supply sources for the Confederate army, Sherman had his army destroy everything in its path. The men tore up rail- roads, burned houses, and destroyed crops. This was one of the first instances of the kind of war sometimes called “total war,” in which an effort is made not only Teaching Idea to destroy the enemy’s armies, but to destroy the infrastructure and morale of the Share with students Sherman’s letter society at large. Sherman’s attacks demoralized the civilian population and to the mayor and councilmen of inspired much hatred among Southerners. Atlanta, available online. (Search for the phrase “You cannot qualify war in The End of the War harsher terms than I will.”) In the let- Reelection of Lincoln ter Sherman explains and justifies his brutality. Sherman’s successful invasion of the South greatly improved Lincoln’s chances for reelection as president in 1864. The Democrats had chosen as their

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candidate General George B. McClellan, whom Lincoln had fired. McClellan cam- Cross-curricular paigned on a platform to end the war through peace negotiations. Many Teaching Idea Northerners were weary of a war that the Union seemed unable to win, and Mathew Brady took many photographs McClellan was willing to allow slavery to continue if the war could be ended. of the Civil War. Have students do However, once Sherman had split the Confederacy, and other Union gener- research about Brady in print or online als, including Grant, began destroying Confederate forces, it began to appear to sources. Note that many of Brady’s pho- be only a matter of time until the South capitulated. Although the election was tographs are graphic representations of close, Lincoln was reelected. With ultimate victory in mind, Lincoln spoke of war and may not be appropriate for stu- what should happen to make the Union whole again. In his Second Inaugural dents. You may wish to select several Address, he said images beforehand and allow students With malice toward none, with charity for all, with firmness in the right as to choose from those. (You may also God gives us to see the right, let us strive on to finish the work we are in, use Art Resource 19, Brady’s photo- to bind up the nation’s wounds, to care for him who shall have borne the graph Battery at Attention. See the dis- battle and for his widow and orphan, to do all which may achieve and cher- cussion in the Visual Arts section ish a just and lasting peace among ourselves and with all nations. 61 “American Art: Nineteenth-Century United States” on pp. 350–360.) Have Fall of Richmond to Union Forces students choose a photograph and copy Richmond was the capital of the Confederacy. In the first two years of the war, it from a book or download it from the battles had been fought to take the city, but the Union forces had always failed due Internet. Then have students write a to the timidity of McClellan and other Union generals. In May 1864, Grant—now paragraph describing what they see in in command of the Union army—moved aggressively to take Richmond. He the photo. Encourage them to describe pushed Lee and his army ahead of him and by August, Lee had been forced back as many details as possible. to Petersburg, not far from Richmond. For nine months, Grant besieged Lee’s army at Petersburg. Finally, on April 2, 1865, when Grant launched an attack, Lee aban- doned Petersburg. Later that day, the Union army marched into Richmond. Teaching Idea Surrender at Appomattox When Grant’s troops heard that Lee had surrendered, they began to cheer. Grant Even though Jefferson Davis had left Richmond with what was left of the is said to have silenced them with the Confederate government, once the capital had fallen it was only a matter of days words, “The war is over. The rebels are until the Confederacy collapsed. Lee and his army had retreated across Virginia to our countrymen again.” the little town of Appomattox Court House, Virginia, where they were trapped by Ask students whether they think that Union forces. On April 9, Lee said to his fellow officers, “There is nothing left for Lincoln would have agreed with Grant. me but to go and see General Grant, and I had rather die a thousand deaths.” Lee What about the Radical Republicans? raised the white flag, Grant and Lee agreed to surrender terms, and the Civil War Ask students to provide evidence to was effectively over. support their opinions. The surrender terms were generous: • Officers and enlisted men could go free. • Rifles had to be surrendered, but officers could keep their side arms (pis- tols and swords). • Any soldier who had a horse could keep it, as it would be needed for plowing. Assassination of Lincoln On April 14, 1865, less than a week after Lee’s surrender, Lincoln and his wife Mary attended a comedy at Ford’s Theater in Washington. When Lincoln arrived, the play was already in progress. One of the actors saw the presidential party arrive and began to applaud. The audience looked up to the balcony where the Lee surrendering to Grant Lincolns were seated, saw the president, and took up the clapping. The orchestra at Appomattox struck up “Hail to the Chief,” and Lincoln acknowledged the salute. The presi- 286 Grade 5 Handbook dent took his seat in the state box and the play continued. CK_5_TH_HG_P231_324.QXD 2/13/06 1:56 PM Page 287

During the third act, a young actor named John Wilkes Booth gained Teaching Idea entrance to the presidential box with a note. He waited until laughter filled the theater and then moved toward the President. He drew out a pistol, shot the Have students create a time line of President once, and leaped from the balcony down to the stage. Breaking his leg Lincoln’s life, from the beginning as he fell, John shouted, “Sic semper tyrannis,” meaning “Thus, always to through to his assassination. Name tyrants,” the motto of Virginia. Booth was a Confederate supporter and saw other presidents that have been Lincoln as a tyrant who had not allowed the South to secede from the Union. He assassinated. had planned his assassination of Lincoln as a counterblow to Lee’s surrender days earlier. In the screaming and confusion that followed, Booth got away. He was

later traced to a barn in Virginia. What happened next is unclear. He either shot Name Date himself or was shot by his pursuers. 62 Time Line Lincoln died of his wounds the following morning, April 15, 1865. C. Reconstruction The South in Ruins When Lee surrendered to Grant, the South lay in ruins. Unlike the North, where there was little direct impact from battles except in central Pennsylvania (Gettysburg) and Maryland (Antietam), little of the South had escaped the fight- ing. Grant had battered first the Mississippi Valley and then Virginia, and Sherman had marched right through the heart of the Confederacy, destroying everything in his path. Directions: Write dates for each event in time order from top to bottom on the left. Add details about the event along the line to the right. Copyright ©Core Knowledge Foundation Copyright ©Core While 360,000 Union soldiers had died, 250,000 Confederate soldiers had Master 82 Grade 5: Teacher Material been killed. Although smaller in number, a larger percentage of the Southern male population was lost. In all, one in 20 Southern whites had been either killed or Use Instructional Master 82. wounded. Four million slaves who had been freed had nowhere to go and no way to make a living. Parts of the South had been devastated by Union troops in an effort to keep supplies from reaching the Confederate army. Homes, farms, shops, and factories had been set afire, and farm tools and machinery had been Cross-curricular destroyed. Two-thirds of the railroad system in the South had been torn up, or the Teaching Idea tracks had been bent so that they were useless. The economy was in no better Walt Whitman’s poem “O Captain, My shape than the landscape. Banks failed and creditors went without payment as the Captain,” was written shortly after collapse of the government made Confederate money worthless. the assassination of Lincoln and pays tribute to Lincoln. You may wish to Struggle for Control of the South teach the poem after discussing the Before his death, Lincoln had drafted a policy toward the South that was assassination. lenient and very much in the spirit of his second inaugural: “with malice towards none.” His policy had an eye towards “binding up the nation’s wounds” rather than pouring salt in them. Among its provisions were that the states were to be readmitted to the Union after ten percent of the male citizens took an oath of loy- alty to the United States. New state constitutions that banned slavery had to be written, and the states had to agree to establish schools to educate African Americans. Arkansas, Louisiana, Tennessee, and Virginia accepted Lincoln’s pro- visions and established new governments. A group in Congress known as “Radical Republicans” disagreed with Lincoln’s plan. While the Radical Republicans did not control the Republican party, and the members of the group sometimes disagreed with one another, the group was able to influence Congress and succeeded in pushing through many of History and Geography: American 287 CK_5_TH_HG_P231_324.QXD 2/13/06 1:56 PM Page 288

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their policies. The Radical Republicans believed stronger measures were neces- Teaching Idea sary to reconstruct the South and to protect the rights of the freed slaves. They Ask students to break apart the word wanted to make sure that former Confederates, almost all of whom were “reconstruction” into prefix, root word, Democrats, would not, or could not, be elected to public office. When the four and suffix. Discuss the meaning of states noted above elected new members of Congress, the Radical Republicans each. Then, ask students why they blocked them from taking their seats. believe this period in history was After Lincoln’s assassination, Vice President Andrew Johnson automatically called “Reconstruction.” (The answer became president. He had been a senator from Tennessee at the time of secession should be to bring the country together and had not followed his state out of the Union; he remained in the Senate. The again to fix it and rebuild it.) As you Republicans had chosen him as Lincoln’s running mate in 1864. Johnson, a self- discuss the next sections with stu- made man, was a supporter of states’ rights and the small farmer. For the most dents, they can track the information on part, he agreed with Lincoln’s plan for Reconstruction. To get around Congress’s Instructional Master 84, T-Chart, where opposition, he took the opportunity of the Congressional recess later in 1865 to one side is a positive outcome of put it into effect. By the time Congress reconvened in December 1865, only Texas Reconstruction, and the other side is a had not complied with the Presidential Reconstruction, as Johnson’s plan was negative outcome. At the end of this called. section, ask students to write a para- The Radical Republicans refused the new members of Congress their seats. graph answering the question, “Was Congress formed a commission that found that Presidential Reconstruction was Reconstruction good for our country? ineffective. The antagonism between the president and Congress worsened in Why or why not?” and justify their 1866 over the Civil Rights Act and the 14th Amendment (see pp. 290–291). answer based on notes taken in class Johnson believed the first was unconstitutional because it violated the rights of and/or on research using primary states. He disapproved of the constitutional amendment for the same reason. sources outside of class. The election of 1866 hinged on whether the people supported Johnson’s view or the Radical Republicans’ view of the proposed 14th Amendment. The peo- ple supported the Radical Republicans, and they gained enough new mem- bers in Congress to override any veto from Johnson. The Radical Republicans were now in charge of Reconstruction. They threw out all the new state gov- ernments because many of the Southern constitutions had “black codes” that limited the rights of freed slaves. The exception was Tennessee, because it was the only state that had ratified the 14th Amendment. The South was divided into five military districts and the army was dis- patched to enforce the civil rights of former slaves and maintain order; in other words, the South was placed under martial law. The states had to write new constitutions guaranteeing African-American males the vote and had to ratify the 14th Amendment. Restrictions were placed on former Confederate officials. Use Instructional Master 84. Impeachment The power struggle between President Johnson and the Radical Republicans continued. In 1867, Congress passed the Tenure of Office Act in an attempt to limit the president’s power. According to this bill, a president would need the approval of the Senate before firing any federal official whom the Senate had con- firmed. Included among these federal officeholders were the cabinet members. Johnson vetoed the bill, but Congress overrode his veto. In violation of the new law, Johnson fired a cabinet member who had sided with the Radical Republicans against him. The House impeached Johnson; that is, it found enough evidence of wrong- doing to hand him over to the Senate for a trial. (The House’s responsibility in this 288 Grade 5 Handbook CK_5_TH_HG_P231_324.QXD 2/13/06 1:56 PM Page 289

situation is similar to that of a grand jury, which hands up an indictment and turns someone over for trial.) The Senate heard the evidence and voted three times, but each time Johnson’s opponents could not muster enough votes. They were always one vote short. In the end the Senate acquitted Johnson, but his effectiveness in office was over. Southern Governments Radical Reconstruction banned former Confederate officers and officials from holding office again. Who then filled the new Southern legislatures and other government positions? Who Why

Northerners who moved South: federal Supported Radical Republican policies government officials, teachers, missionaries Some, to profit economically from Some, volunteers and employees of the Reconstruction Freedmen’s Bureau cartoon of President Johnson Southerners who supported Radical Republican Abolitionists, were against secession, and/or during his impeachment policies remained loyal to the Union during the war Some, to profit economically from Reconstruction Free-born and freed African Americans Participate in their own governance

The new governments of the South were Republican, and most government positions were filled by members of three groups: Northerners, Southerners who worked with the Northerners, or freed African Americans. The Northerners, who had often served in the Union army or were working for the Freedmen’s Bureau (see p. 290), moved south to help with Reconstruction. The Southern officials were whites who supported the efforts of Reconstruction. Ex-Confederates dis- paragingly called the Northerners “carpetbaggers” and the Southerners who col- laborated with them “.” The nickname “carpetbagger” supposedly came from the carpetbags (19th-century suitcases) that Northerners carried with them. Southerners said the Northerners were there to exploit the Southerners and take their money. The term means “rascal” or “scoundrel.” In many Southern states, freed African Americans also held government positions, which was both symbolic and literal proof that efforts to reconstruct the South were, at least by some appearances, working. However, many white Southerners resent- ed the new leaders and their policies, and some of the new government officials, particularly the carpetbaggers, were corrupt. The turmoil of Reconstruction led to years of political conflict for the South. Freedmen’s Bureau Freed African Americans faced a bleak future. They had no place to live, no education, no money to buy food, and no experience in bargaining for a job or dealing with the law. The only last names they had were the names of their for- mer owners. Many rectified that quickly by taking the names of Americans they admired. Among those were Lincoln, Washington, and Jefferson. In 1865, the Freedmen’s Bureau was established by the Department of War to look after the welfare of freed slaves. Agents of the bureau provided food for for- mer slaves and helped them find housing and employment. The bureau provided

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legal aid and negotiated contracts for freed slaves to make sure their pay and working conditions were fair. To provide medical care, the bureau founded hos- pitals. 63 The bureau established schools to teach African-American children and adults how to read and write. Within five years, some 300,000 African Americans were in school. The Freedmen’s Bureau also established black colleges. As the Civil War ended, many freed slaves came to expect that they would be given “40 acres and a mule.” This promise stemmed from several sources but ulti- mately was not honored. Toward the end of the Civil War, General Sherman Freedmen’s Bureau school issued a proclamation that all freed slaves should be granted 40-acre parcels of land. This land was formerly owned by whites but would be given to freed slaves in an attempt to help them establish a homestead and to compensate them for Teaching Idea their work as slaves. The Union army also had a surplus of mules it did not need, Have students imagine they are freed so Sherman ordered that the mules be distributed to the freed families as well. slaves. Talk about what it must have President Johnson rescinded Sherman’s order once he became president on the been like to have nothing but the grounds that it was unconstitutional, and President Johnson had all confiscated clothes on their backs and no informa- land returned to its former white owners. The Freedmen’s Bureau also issued an tion about how to find a job, food, a act stating that freed slaves should be given up to 40 acres of land, but it was not place to live, how to read, how to use passed by Congress. President Johnson vetoed any attempt to give land to African money, and so on. Americans, most of whom felt they were entitled to this opportunity based on the Have students draw up a list of burden of their labor as slaves. things that they would need, including kinds of information. If students do not 13th, 14th, 15th Amendments to the Constitution mention education, talk about why The 13th, 14th, and 15th Amendments are known as “the Reconstruction knowing how to read and write was Amendments.” These three amendments were passed in response to slavery and important to former slaves. extended the rights of African Americans. 13th Amendment • outlawed slavery Teaching Idea • was passed and ratified in 1865 by the required 27 states, including Before teaching the 13th–15th Southern states Amendments to the Constitution, review • stated that “Neither slavery nor involuntary servitude, except as punish- the Constitution and the first 12 ment for crime whereof the party shall have been duly convicted, shall exist with- Amendments. in the United States, or any place subject to their jurisdiction.” 14th Amendment • was the civil rights amendment • extended certain rights to African Americans and denied certain rights to white Southerners • was passed and ratified by Northern states and Tennessee in 1868 • was opposed by Johnson because he believed it violated the rights of the states • stated that “All persons born or naturalized in the United States, and sub- ject to the jurisdiction thereof, are citizens of the United States and of the state wherein they reside. No state shall make or enforce any law which shall abridge the privileges or immunities of citizens of the United States; nor shall any state deprive any person of life, liberty, or property, without due process of law; nor deny to any person within its jurisdiction the equal protection of the laws.”

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• provided that (a) the number of representatives for a state in the House of Representatives would be reduced in proportion to the number of citizens who were denied their voting rights by the state; (b) no former Confederate officer could hold office unless Congress pardoned him; (c) debts of the Confederate government would not be repaid; (d) former slave owners could not sue for the loss of their property, that is, slaves 15th Amendment • was the African-American amendment • was passed and ratified in 1870 • was considered necessary when Southern states continued to deny African-American men the right to vote • stated that “The right of citizens of the United States to vote shall not be denied or abridged by the United States or by any state on account of race, color, or previous condition of servitude.” Black Codes In response to Northern efforts to aid former enslaved African Americans— such as the establishment of the Freedmen’s Bureau and ratification of the 13th Amendment—Southern legislatures passed a series of black codes in 1865 and 1866. These laws were similar to the old slave codes, which limited severely the activities of African Americans, that Southern towns, cities, and legislatures had passed in the 1700s and in the early 1800s. In an attempt to reimpose some of the restrictions of slavery, the black codes typically required that former slaves be indoors by a curfew and have a permit to travel. In addition, a white person had to be present if former slaves wished to meet in a group. New regulations forbade former slaves from serving on juries, voting, owning land, and holding public office. Most troubling were those provi- sions that made it lawful to arrest and fine unemployed African Americans. An employer could pay the fine and then force the unemployed former slave to work in order to repay the fine. This amounted to a new form of servitude. The and “Vigilante Justice” As early as 1866, groups of white Southerners began a campaign of terror against African Americans and their white supporters. Angry whites, many of whom were Confederate veterans returned from the war, organized into secret societies, such as the Knights of the White Camelia and the . Perhaps the most notorious, and certainly the largest, was the Ku Klux Klan. Klan members dressed in white robes and masks and rode out under cover of night. Their aim was to keep former slaves and white Republicans from voting or holding public office. The Klan planted and burned crude wooden crosses in front of the homes and churches of people they wanted to frighten. When this failed to scare off African Americans, the Klan beat their victims. The violence escalated until “vigilante justice” took over in the late 1800s; several hundred vic- tims of the Klan were abducted and hung in the South every year. 64

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Ida B. Wells-Barnett, an African-American female journalist, mounted a cam- paign in 1892 to bring lynching to the attention of the general public. By 1899, the number of lynchings in the South had dropped to 180 a year. This was down from 235 when Wells-Barnett had published her report in 1895. However, this form of vigilante justice continued in the South for several generations. End of Reconstruction: By the mid-1870s, Americans were tired of Reconstruction. The most promi- nent Radical Republicans had died or been replaced in Congress. Other problems and concerns, such as the economy, increasing immigration, and industrializa- tion, replaced Reconstruction. In addition, business interests wanted relations with the South normalized. There was a desire among Northern businessmen to invest in and develop the resources of the South, which had been difficult while the states were under martial law. By the election of 1876, only three states—Louisiana, Florida, and South Carolina—retained Reconstruction governments. In the election for president that year, the Democrats nominated Samuel J. Tilden of New York. The Republicans chose Rutherford B. Hayes, the governor of Ohio. It appeared that Tilden had won until Republican leaders in Louisiana, Florida, and South Carolina challenged and discarded large numbers of votes cast for Tilden. To end the confusion, Congress established a commission of eight Republicans and seven Democrats that included Supreme Court Justices, sena- tors, and members of the House of Representatives. The commission worked out a compromise that is known as the “Compromise of 1877.” The Democrats sup- ported Hayes in exchange for the following: • the withdrawal of federal troops from the South and the end of Reconstruction • funding for construction of the Texas and Pacific Railroad • the appointment of a Southerner to the president’s cabinet With the Compromise of 1877, Reconstruction was over.

The Big Idea Review in Review Below are some ideas for ongoing assessment and review activities. These are Slavery, the Civil War, not meant to constitute a comprehensive list. Teachers may also refer to the and Reconstruction Pearson Learning/Core Knowledge History & Geography series for additional infor- occupied much of the mation and teaching ideas. United States’ attention • Because of the number of people and places named in this section, have stu- and energy in the mid- dents play “Who/What Am I?” or create crossword puzzles to review the materi- 19th century. al. Have students create puzzles with at least 12 clues and then exchange them. Or have students work in teams of two to create five identifications. Then group two teams together and have them take turns asking the opposite team their identifi- cation questions.

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