American Civil War

history · American · freedom · turning point

Why it started. Eleven Southern states split away from the United States to form the Confederacy because they wanted to keep slavery, which they feared would be threatened after Abraham Lincoln was elected president.

A divided nation. The war pitted the Union (Northern states) against the Confederacy (Southern states) in the bloodiest conflict America had ever seen, with battles raging across the country for four long years.

Four million freed. When the Union won in 1865, slavery was officially abolished across the entire country, freeing four million African Americans who had been enslaved in the South.

Lincoln's leadership. President Abraham Lincoln led the North through the war and worked to end slavery, though he was assassinated just days after the war ended.

The South defeated. The Confederacy was completely dissolved when the North won, meaning the United States became one nation again with slavery permanently illegal everywhere.