My Top Ten: Civil War and Reconstruction by Regina Gonzalez

SECTIONALISM: The Missouri Compromise of 1820

regina_gonzalez4 — 2024-10-04 17:07:32 UTC

The Missouri Compromise was federal legislation of the U.S that balanced desires of Northern States to prevent expansion of slavery and desires of the Southern States to expand and keep it. It tried to address growing sectional tensions over the issue of slavery by admitting Missouri as a slave state and Maine as a non-slave state. This kept the country divided evenly in numbers and kept sectional balance.

SECTIONALISM: The Election of 1860

regina_gonzalez4 — 2024-10-06 19:45:05 UTC

The 1860 election was a four-way contest pimarily focused between Republican Abraham Lincoln and his Democrat oponent John C. Breckinridge. The main issue of the election was slavery and states’ rights. Lincoln emerged victorious and became the 16th President of the United States. This event contributed/increased sectional tension by highlighting pro-union and anti-slavery beliefs because of President Lincoln. Because the newly-elected president introduced many ideas that opposed to the standard American beliefs at the time, the South viewed him as a threat to their way of life and did not accept him as leader. Many voted towards his removal too. However, his dominant source of support throughout his campaign and after the election came from the North/Northern states.

SECTIONALISM: Bleeding Kansas

regina_gonzalez4 — 2024-10-06 21:15:28 UTC

Bleeding Kansas is described as the repeated outbreaks of violence and turbulence in Kansas during the years of 1854-1861. These acts were committed between anti-slavery forces and pro-slavery forces after the Kansas-Nebraska Act of 1854 which established the concept of popular sovereignty and opened two new territories to slavery. This event only widened the gap of seperation between North and South as they fought for their beliefs in regards to slavery. An estimatesd 55 people died as a result of Bleeding Kansas. In the end, anti-slavery forces prevailed as Kansas joined the Union.

THE CIVIL WAR: Battle of Antietam 1862

regina_gonzalez4 — 2024-10-06 21:37:54 UTC

23,000 soliders were killed, wounded, or missing after 12 hours of combat on September 17, 1862. The Battle of Antietam ended the Confederate Army of Northern Virginia's first invasion led by Abraham Lincoln. It proved the Union's power against the South which gave Lincoln the confidence to issue the preliminary Emancipation Proclamation.

THE CIVIL WAR: Emancipation Proclamation

regina_gonzalez4 — 2024-10-06 21:38:11 UTC

President Abraham Lincoln issued the Emancipation Proclamation on January 1, 1863. As the U.S approached it's third year of Civil War, the proclamation declared 'that all persons held as slaves' within the rebellious states 'are. and henceforward shall be free'. However, the proclamation did not free all slaves in the United States. Rather, it declared free only those slaves living in states not under Union control. This statement affected the Civil War because it was a revolutionary movement for the enslaved and it also created moral force towards the Union as more African-Americans fled to the North in search of freedom.

THE CIVIL WAR: Telegraph

regina_gonzalez4 — 2024-10-06 23:19:38 UTC

During the Civil War, many developments in war and combat technology developed such as the Minie Ball. However, communication was also very important during the war. The telegraph, developed in 1837 by Samuel Morse and other collaborators, the telegraph revolutionized long-distance communication. It worked by transmutting electrical signals over a wire laid between stations.

RECONSTRUCTION: Freedman's Bureau (success)

regina_gonzalez4 — 2024-10-06 23:32:08 UTC

On March 3, 1865, Congress passed the "Freedman's Bureau" which provide food, shelter, clothing, medical services, and land to newly freed African-Americans. Many historically Black colleges and universities were built during the years the bureau was active. Such institutions include Morehouse College, Howard University, and Spelman College. The benefit of this bureau was so effective but short-lived. Southerners were strictly against it and took the opportunity to abolish it after Lincoln was assasinated.

RECONSTRUCTION: Ku Klux Klan (failure)

regina_gonzalez4 — 2024-10-07 00:01:27 UTC

The Ku Klux Klan or KKK functioned as a group of political and social terrorists who's main goal was to maintain white supremacy and did so during the Reconstruction Era by murdering, kidnapping, and terrorizing African-Americans. They were eventually banned from society in 1871 ater their founding in 1865.

RECONSTRUCTION: Assassination of Abraham Lincoln (failure)

regina_gonzalez4 — 2024-10-07 00:15:42 UTC

On April 14, 1865, John Wilkes Booth snuck up behind President Abraham Lincoln as he watched a play at Ford's Theater, and shot him in the back of the head. Lincoln was the first president to be assasinated and in his place, Andrew Johnson became the next president. Reconstruction was greatly affected by Lincoln's assasination because he was the only president interested in the abolishment of slavery. After his death, many efforts made to reconstruct the U.S after the Civil War were abolished and forgotten about.