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Right in the middle of the war, on January 1, 1863, Abraham Lincoln freed all the slaves fighting against the Union.  In other words, he didn't free any slaves.  It did, however, send a message that the objective of the war was to end slavery, as much as it was to preserve the Union.  Furthermore, this prevented Britain from helping the South, as they refused to fight to keep people enslaved. Lastly, it proved to be advantageous to the Union, as it allowed African Americans to join the Union Army.

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The world's first industrial war, the Civil War, began when the Confederate States of America (South Carolina, Mississippi, Alabama, Florida, Georgia, Louisiana, and Texas) attacked Fort Sumter.  The Emancipation Proclamation was incredibly beneficial towards the North, since there were now many previous slaves who joined the war.  The ironically named Civil War consisted of many devastating and bloody battles, and resulted in the deaths of more than 600,000 soldiers. Finally, after 4 years, the Confederate states surrendered on April 9.

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The vast majority of Republicans voted for Abraham Lincoln, while Democratic votes were split between 2 people; Stephen Douglas and John C. Breckinridge.  To make matters even more complicated, a group titled the Constitutional Union Party, nominated John Bell.  With only 40% of votes, 180 electoral votes, to be exact, Abraham Lincoln was elected as president, although in 10 southern states, he wasn't on the ballot. South Carolina, followed by 6 more states, seceded from the Union, and formed the Confederate States of America.

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Located in Charleston Harbor, South Carolina, Fort Sumter was originally constructed in 1829 as a coastal garrison, although it would later become famous for the first few shots of the Civil War.  Confederate General P.G.T. Beauregard attacked Fort Sumter on April 12, 1861. After 34 hours of shooting, U.S. Major Robert Anderson, along with 86 soldiers, surrendered the fort to the Confederates, who occupied Fort Sumter for a total of 4 years.
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The Dred Scott Decision is widely considered to be one of he absolute worst decisions that the Supreme Court has ever made, and it was one of the main events that lead to the Civil War. In 1857, an African-American slave by the name of Dred Scott traveled to the territory that is now Wisconsin, along with his owner, John Emerson. John Emerson died sometime after he and Scott returned to Missouri, and so Dred decided to sue Emerson's wife for his freedom, claiming that, because he temporarily stayed in Wisconsin, he was no longer a slave.  The nine justices had to decide if Scott had the right to bring a case to a federal court, and if his time in a free territory made him a free man.  Hoping to settle the controversy of slavery, Chief Justice Roger Taney proposed two more questions: Could Congress make laws regarding slavery in territories, and is the Missouri Compromise constitutional?  Taney had always been against slavery, which made it all the more surprising when, on March 6, 1857, he declared that, because he was not a citizen, Dred Scott could not sue in a federal court. Taney also announced that Scott was unable to become a citizen, due to the fact that he was African-American. It was also decided that the Missouri Compromise was unconstitutional, and so Scott was not a free man, as this would be considered taking someone else's property.

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The Fugitive Slave Law stated that any escaped slaves found in the North could be recaptured, as long as the master of the slave had proof of their ownership over the individual.  Slaves could not testify in court under any circumstances whatsoever.  Furthermore, anyone who was found to be helping or hiding slaves, would be either arrested or fined. The Fugitive Slave Law was by far the most controversial part of the Compromise of 1850.

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Up until 1820, there were 22 states; 11 free states and 11 slave states.  Eventually, Missouri wanted to become an official state, and it would be a slave state. To keep the balance, Maine was added as a free state, which was an idea that Henry Clay thought of. At the latitude 36°30ʹ, Congress drew an imaginary line across the Louisiana Purchase, and slavery was permanently prohibited to the north of this line, save for Missouri.  South of this line, however, slavery was still legal. Not many people were content with the Missouri Compromise.

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Passed by Congress on May 30, 1854, the Kansas-Nebraska Act allowed people living in the Kansas and Nebraska territories to chose if they will allow slavery.  It also repealed the Missouri Compromise, and the conflicts that resulted from this act eventually led to the events of Bleeding Kansas-a period of immense violence-and the Civil War. The Kansas-Nebraska Act ultimately failed its initial purpose, and by the time Kansas became an official state, some southern states had already begun to secede from the Union.

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Henry Clay, a politician, was the person who originally had the idea to make the Compromise of 1850. It was decided that both California and Washington would be free states, and in territories, the people living there were allowed to make the decision to be a free or a slave state. All of this greatly benefited the North. The law that was requested by the South, the Fugitive Slave Law, allowed escaped slaves in the North to be recaptured and brought back the the South, and anyone who was caught helping slaves escape would either be arrested or fined. As a result of this, fewer people would help slaves trying to escape via the Underground Railroad, and so it wasn't as helpful to the slaves as it had previously been.

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While some slaves used the Underground Railroad as a means of escape, others chose to hide in the Great Dismal Swamp, in southeastern Virginia and northeastern North Carolina.  In this swamp, there were many snakes, insects, and other wild animals, although the large amount of wild animals also gave escaped slaves a source of food and clothing. Although it was difficult to catch a runaway slave hiding in the Great Dismal Swamp, sometimes slave catchers would make an attempt to do so, with the help of specially trained dogs.  Most runaway slaves lived in huts that were built on high ground.

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Many people in the Southern United States were farmers, and grew things such as rice, tobacco, indigo, and sugarcane.  The most common crop, however, were cotton plants.  In this time period, cotton was used to make almost everything that was a clothing item, and so it was in high demand.  Since all the factories were in the North, the South would sell them cotton to use to make clothing, and then the North would sell those articles of clothing to people throughout the United States.  Because cotton was in such high demand, the people in the South needed more workers, so they would produce more cotton.  For this reason, more Americans in the South bought slaves, and those slaves were given more hard labor.

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Anthony Burns was the youngest of 13 children, and he was born into slavery on May 31, 1834.  After the death of their owner, John Suttle, his wife had to sell 5 of Anthony's siblings.  Anthony was tasked with many jobs, one of which included looking after 4 other slaves that Mrs. Suttle owned.  He also had to may his master a fee using his own earnings.  Anthony escaped his owner in 1854, by boarding a ship to Boston, only to be recaptured on May 24 that same year.  On May 26, 1854, Lewis Hayden and Thomas W. Higginson, along with other abolitionists, attacked the Suffolk County Courthouse while trying to free Burns. Unfortunately, they were unsuccessful.  On June 2, 1854, approximately 2,000 federal soldiers escorted Anthony Burns to a dock where a ship was waiting to bring him back to Virginia.

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In the 1830's, Samuel Morse created the telegraph, which introduced a brand new method of communication. Before the telegraph was invented, everyone used letters to send messages. Unfortunately, sending letters wasn't the most time-efficient method of communication, so telegraphs became the more common way to send messages.

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The factories that some people spent almost 24 hours working in had terrible conditions. There was poor lighting, no proper ventilation, and a high risk of injury and death. Furthermore, there were children as young as seven years old that were being forced to work in these conditions, and many of them lost their lives as a result, since they were often around dangerous machinery for hours at a time.

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The Northern United States have a large number of bays that are great places for fishing, as well as broad rivers, and rich soil, which gives the North perfect conditions for farming.  The economy is largely based upon industrialism, and machines make the plethora of work slightly more bearable.  Aside from this, there were numerous opportunities for work, especially in factories at this time.  During the nineteenth century, the most common form of transportation was by train, and there were a large number of roads and train tracks throughout the North.  There were millions of people  populating (Many of which were immigrants) the North, and 7 out of every 10 people usually lived on farms. Because slavery was already abolished in the North by this time, many African Americans started their own businesses.
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In the eighteen hundreds, asylums were finally created to separate the mentally ill from criminals.  Unfortunately, by no means does this imply that mental patients were treated in a humane or compassionate way.  In 1825, Blackwell's Island Lunatic Asylum, the first public mental asylum in the country, was built in New York.  It was in the 1880's, however, that journalist Nellie Bly investigated the aforementioned asylum.  Bly found that there were few heaters, patients were forced to bathe in freezing water, and the small portions of food that patients received tasted dreadful.  The attendants were often abusive, and this treatment only worsened with time.  Bly also found several other women who had been placed in Blackwell's Island Lunatic Asylum, who didn't show any signs of a single illness. One of these women had been choked by attendants for crying out of fear that she would never escape. Eventually, Bly was released from the asylum, and continued to write a book about the horrible mistreatment that was occurring.

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Alcohol abuse had lead to domestic violence, and drinking large amounts of alcohol was considered morally wrong, so eventually a ban was placed, in hopes that these problems would be solved. Because a ban was placed on alcohol, crime rated skyrocketed due to people wanting to consume alcoholic beverages.

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In 1848, the very first gathering n favor of women's rights was held, and it went from July 19-20, in Seneca Falls, New York.  On the first day, only women were permitted to attend, while on the second, men were invited as well.  Elizabeth Cady and Lucretia Mott were the ones to arrange the convention.  Among those in attendance was Frederick Douglass, and escaped slave and abolitionist, who gave many speeches about women's rights.
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Many prisons were filled with not only violent criminals, but also mentally ill individuals and people who owed money to the government. These prisons were cramped, poorly heated, and there was an insufficient amount of food.  Some of the prisoners developed mental illnesses due to the solitary confinement. On occasion, prisoners were subject to abuse, along with the aforementioned flaws that prisons had. Luckily, in 1841, Dorothea Dix realized the inhumane ways that prisoners were treated, and played a big role in reforming prisons in America.

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Many schools taught things related to religion, and this was seen as a problem to some people. A school in Massachusetts was the first public school that was set up by taxes, and also free from religion. Eventually, more states began to do the same, and colleges were created to train teachers.

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Harriet Tubman, a female abolitionist who was born into slavery, was known as the "Moses of her people, and also helped other slaves escape.  Furthermore, she is recognized as the first African American woman to serve in the military.  She first began to resist slavery at age twelve, when she attempted to prevent a slave from being beaten by her master.  This resulted in her being hit in the head with a two-pound weight, which caused Harriet to have terrible headaches and narcolepsy for the rest of her life.  In 1849, Harriet and her two brothers escaped slavery via the Underground Railroad.  Sadly, in 1913, Harriet died of Pneumonia, and as buried in Auburn's Fort Hill Cemetery.
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In 1841, a community called Brook Farm was created in West Roxbury, Massachusetts, with the intention of being a utopian society. This community was built around the idea that people should cooperate with one another, instead of competing. Brook Farm was originally founded by George Ripley, a transcendentalist, as well as a scholar.  Aside from Brook Farm, there were hundreds of these "ideal" societies that began to show up around this time.

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Henry David Thoreau was known for being many things; a philosopher, naturalist, social reformer, transcendentalist, as well as a scientist. However, what he is most known for is writing a book on his experience with living in nature, completely isolated.  This book, Walden, was published in 1854, and was about Henry's own personal experience while living in the woods near Concord, Massachusetts for more than 2 years.

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Ralph Waldo Emerson, born on May 25, 1803, in Boston, Massachusetts, was a very famous poet.  He wrote his first book, Nature, was published in 1836, and does a great job at showing his transcendentalism.  His most famous and well known works are the first and second series of his book Essays.

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