Slavery and the Civil War

Unit Review Sheet

Facts and Definitions

Lesson 1: Antebellum America

• By the start of the Civil War, there were 22 million people in the North. The North was home to far more factories, a more extensive railway system, and many more large cities than the South.
• At the start of the Civil War, the South was still a largely agricultural region that was home to roughly 9 million people, over one third of them enslaved. The agricultural economy relied on slave labor on plantations for the production of cash crops (agricultural crops that are produced for sale to make a profit), especially cotton.
• Antebellum refers to the time period before the American Civil War.
• The Industrial Revolution refers to the expansion of the use of machines and factories in creating mass-produced goods.
• Immigration is a foreigner's entrance into a country for purposes of permanent residency.
• Slavery was a system in which some people were held as the legal property of other people and forced to work for them.
• A cash crop is an agricultural product grown for sale.

Lesson 2: Slavery

• Two main kinds of resources can tell us about the past: primary sources and secondary sources.
• Primary sources are created at the time a historical event takes place or are produced by people who remember the event. Newspaper accounts, photographs, artwork, maps, diary entries, letters, objects from the past, and interviews with people who remember the past are all primary sources.
• Secondary sources are created after a historical event takes place. For example, if an author writes a book about the past, that would be a secondary source.

Lesson 3: Disunion and the Start of the Civil War

• Secession means formally withdrawing from membership in a group. In this context, secession refers to Southern states declaring their intent to withdraw from the United States of America in an effort to form a new nation.
• The Civil War arose out of the differences between the North and South over the issue of slavery. The issue of federal versus state authority was also important since many people were concerned about whether the federal government had the power to tell the states or territories whether or not they would allow slavery within their borders.

Lesson 4: Leadership and the Civil War

• During the Civil War, Abraham Lincoln was president of the United States of America and Jefferson Davis was president of the Confederate States of America.
• Two of the most famous generals in the Civil War were Ulysses S. Grant (Union) and Robert E. Lee (Confederate).

Lesson 5: The Wartime Experience

• Almost half of the men of military age in the North and almost 80-90% of the men of military age in the South served in the Civil War.
• Sutlers were civilian merchants who sold supplemental food and personal items to soldiers.
• A haversack or knapsack was used to carry a soldier's food and/or personal belongings.

Lesson 6: Major Battles of the Civil War

• After the lesson, be sure that you understand the importance of battles like the First and Second Battles of Bull Run, the Battle of Antietam, and the Battle of Gettysburg in determining the course of the Civil War.
• The Emancipation Proclamation declared that the people held as slaves in states that had seceded from the Union would be free, so as Union forces advanced into Confederate areas, enslaved people in those areas were freed by the thousands. The Proclamation was an important step toward the end of slavery.

Lesson 7: The Homefront Experience

• People in both the North and South worried about husbands, fathers, brothers, and sons who fought in the Civil War. They also faced inflation and high prices.
• Inflation is an increase in prices and a drop in the value of currency; in other words, during a period of inflation, the same amount of money will pay for less than it would have beforehand.
• The Union blockade of the Confederate coast and the North's greater industrial capacity and more extensive transportation system meant that necessary goods were far more difficult to buy in the South than in the North.
• Families and community organizations on both sides supported the troops by volunteering, making clothing and other necessary items, sending care packages, and supporting the war effort however they could.

Lesson 8: Gettysburg and Beyond

• Sherman's March to the Sea destroyed a great deal of property that could be used to support the Confederate war effort and ended in the capture of Atlanta.
• Abraham Lincoln's Gettysburg Address became one of the most famous speeches ever written.

Lesson 9: End of War and Reconstruction

• The Thirteenth Amendment to the Constitution (1865) prohibited slavery.
• The Fourteenth Amendment to the Constitution (1868) provided equal protection under the law for every American citizen.
• The Fifteenth Amendment to the Constitution (1870) affirmed that all citizens have the right to vote.

Final Project: Remembering the Civil War

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