Student post by Joia, written on February 10, 2015
Tom Gill, Civil War Smoke, May 19, 2007
Did you know hundreds of thousands of people died fighting the United States Civil War? In social science, we are learning about the history of the United States. Right now, we are learning about the causes of the Civil War. We learned about the Civil War each day by completing parts of a mini-book that was specifically made for the topic.
Gabe fashioned a creative cover on his Causes of the Civil War mini-book.
The Civil War was fought between the Union (Northern) and the Confederate (Southern) states [in the 1860s]. One of the reasons why the war occurred was because of the different views of slavery. The Union did not want slaves in their territory–those who opposed slaves were called abolitionists. However, the Confederate states did not mind having slaves and strongly wanted to keep them around. This resulted in [southerners] labeled as pro-slavery supporters.
Cotton Boll, Photo by Jimmy Smith, September 14, 2002
One main reason Confederate states fought for the act of slave labor was that their slaves provided work to grow cotton. Cotton was a necessary crop that was in huge demand by consumers, making the states dependent on this crop in order to continue the growth of their economy. This caused violence between abolitionists and pro-slavery supporters. Even in Congress, violence had broken out. Preston Brooks, a pro-slavery representative from the South, had beaten Charles Sumner, an abolitionist representative from the North, with a cane.
Would you support slavery or would you be an abolitionist?
