Ppt presentation on the American Civil War

1. The American Civil War

2. Introduction
United States of
America were born in
1783, after an
Independence War
against Britain which
started in 1776
(Declaration of
Independence)

3. Introduction
The new country
expanded towards the
West by conquering
lands where Indian
Americans lived for
centuries under other
European or American
powers sovereignty

4. Introduction
Even from the
Independence,
there were
strong
differences
between North
and South

5. Introduction
The North, more
populated and
industrialised,
opposed slavery
and wanted to
«preserve the
Union»

6. Introduction
The South, with
abundant slave
black population
that worked in
the cotton fields,
wanted to
maintain slavery
and secede from
the United States

7. The war
Bloody and
violent war
which
devastated the
US. More than
600.000 people
died either in
battle or disease

8. The beginnings
Urban
In the Northern
Rural
Industry and
Trade based
Agriculture states a growing
based on
on free
workforce
slave work anti-slavery
opinion
In favour of a
In favour of demanded the
more political
more unified
Union
power for the abolition of
States
slavery in the US

9. The Compromise of 1850
• California, free
state
• Territories of New
Mexico and Utah
• Border issues
between Texas
and Mexico
settled
• Slavery banned in
Washington D.C.
• The Fugitive Slave
Law

10. The Compromise of 1850
• Slaves who
escaped to the
North must be
sent back to
their masters
• This law changed
the atmosphere
regarding slavery
in the North,
encouragin the
abolitionist
movement

11. The Compromise of 1850

12. Regional Division, Political Unrest
and the Elections of 1860
• Growing
political unrest
on the slavery
issue
• Violent
incidents
• Election
campaign of
1860

13. Regional Division, Political Unrest
and the Elections of 1860
• Republican Party
(Abraham
Lincoln): abolition
and stronger
central
government
• Democratic Party:
States should
decide on slavery
issue (maintaining
slavery in the
South)

14. Regional Division, Political Unrest
and the Elections of 1860
• Abraham
Lincoln and
Republicans’
victory
triggered the
secession
(separation) of
several
southern
states.

15. Regional Division, Political Unrest
and the Elections of 1860
• These states formed
the Confederate
States of America,
the Confederacy
which fought the
Union (23 northern
and some western
states)
• Border Slave States:
supported slavery
and favoured the
Confederacy but did
not secede from the
Union

16. The War (1861-1865)
• Battle of Fort Sumter
1861 – the beginning
• Extremely cruel war
(600.000 people were
killed, not including
Native Americans)
• 179.000 African
Americans fought in
both sides. 40.000 of
them died.
• «War of attrition»:
relentless, bloody war
until the complete
exhaution of materials
and soldiers of one
side

17. The War (1861-1865)
The main figures of
the war:
• Ulysses S. Grant,
the most
prominent Union
general
• Robert E. Lee,
one of the
principle
Confederate
generals

18. The War (1861-1865)
The battles:
• Antietam, 1862.
The Northern
army kept the
Confederate army
from further
advancing to the
North
• Gettysburg, 1863.
The Union started
winning the war.
The higher
number of
casualties.

19. The War (1861-1865)
The Gettysburg
address:
• The most famous
of Abraham
Lincoln’s speeches
• The Union Army
was fighting for a
new country in
«which equality
and central
government
would reign»

20. The end of the American Civil War and
the assassination of Abraham Lincoln
• The fall of
Atlanta(july
1865)
• «The March to
the sea» from
Atlanta to
Savannah
• Batle of Five
Forks (april
1865)

21. The end of the American Civil War and
the assassination of Abraham Lincoln
• The Union
was
maintained
• 13th
Amendment
to the US
Constitution:
Abolition of
slavery

22. The end of the American Civil War and
the assassination of Abraham Lincoln
• Actually, the
restoration of African
Americans human and
civil rights proved to
be vey complicated
• Shortly, segregation
substituted slavery in
the Southern States of
the former
Confederacy
• "Jim Crow" had
become a pejorative
expression meaning
"Negro" by 1838,
before the war

23. The end of the American Civil War and
the assassination of Abraham Lincoln
• The «Jim Crow» laws
were passed in
southern states from
1875 to 1965
• They mandated racial
segregation in all
public facilities
• The separation in
practice led to inferior
conditions for African
Americans,
systematizing a
number of economic,
educational and social
disadvantages.

24. The end of the American Civil War and
the assassination of Abraham Lincoln
• The best example
of the difficulties
of bringing racial
equality in the US
was the
assassination of
Abraham Lincoln
in April 1865 by
John Wilkes, a
supporter of
slavery and the
Confederacy