Civil War Facts and Controversies
                     Civil War Facts and Controversies
Introduction
The Civil War in the United States began in 1861, after decades of 
simmering tensions between northern and southern states over 
slavery, states’ rights and westward expansion.
Source: www.history.com
The Civil War
The election of Abraham Lincoln in 1860 caused seven southern 
states to secede and form the Confederate States of America; four 
more states soon joined them. The War Between the States, as the 
Civil War was also known, ended in Confederate surrender in 1865.
Source: www.history.com
The Conflict
The conflict was the costliest and deadliest war ever fought on 
American soil, with some 620,000 of 2.4 million soldiers killed, 
millions more injured and much of the South left in ruin.
Source: www.history.com
Causes of the Civil 
War
Economic difference
In the mid-19th century, while the United States was experiencing an 
era of tremendous growth, a fundamental economic difference 
existed between the country’s northern and southern regions.
Source: www.history.com
Abolitionist 
sentiment
Growing abolitionist sentiment in the North after the 1830s and 
northern opposition to slavery’s extension into the new western 
territories led many southerners to fear that the existence of slavery 
in America—and thus the backbone of their economy—was in 
danger.
Source: www.history.com
Reconstruction
The period following the end of the Civil War in April 1865 became 
known as 'Reconstruction', characterised by a series of political 
battles over the extent of leniency the North should show to the 
defeated South. 
Source: www.bl.uk
The post–war years
Economic depression, accusations of corruption and continued 
racism created violent opposition and a rising white backlash against 
freedmen’s rights. 
The post–war years also witnessed the creation of white vigilante 
groups, such as the Ku Klux Klan, which sought to restore a white 
supremacist status quo through violence and intimidation, though 
many of these (including the Klan for a few decades) were 
suppressed by the President Ulysses S. Grant’s government in the 
1870s.
Source: www.bl.uk
National Union 
Identity
During the period that then followed, labelled 'Redemption' by 
Southerners, legislation disenfranchised African Americans, and 
imposed white supremacy by what were known as the Jim Crow 
Laws. 
As such, while the Civil War helped to forge a national Union identity, 
based on the ideals of freedom and equality, it also sowed the seeds 
of a myth of Southern victimisation and the romanticisation of the 
Antebellum South.
Source: www.bl.uk
Collective amnesia
In contrast, British collective memory might be better described as 
collective amnesia, with British involvement and contemporary 
debate about the war largely forgotten. 
Perhaps because of the extent of support for the Confederate states 
and subsequent desire to forget this preference towards the slave–
holding states. 
However, the growing field of local history research has done much 
to explore the tensions surrounding Confederate support in Britain, 
especially in relation to the economic considerations of the cotton 
trade and the conflict’s impact on the nation.
Source: www.bl.uk
Trans–national 
context
Over the last decade especially, more attention has been drawn to 
Britain’s own engagements with both the Union and Confederacy, 
ensuring that the American Civil War is increasingly put into a 
broader, trans–national context, which can only benefit fields of 
study either side of the Atlantic.
Source: www.bl.uk