Abolition of Slavery: United States

Abolition of Slavery

United States 1863-1865

Synopsis

By early 1861, just before the beginning of the American Civil War (sometimes also called the War Between the States and the War for Southern Independence), serious economic and ideological differences divided the citizens of the United States. The primary points of contention were slavery and the rights of the states with respect to the federal government. These growing differences also divided the country geographically. Nineteen states, including the industrialized northern states, prohibited slavery, while 15 southern states, whose society depended on agriculture, allowed the ownership of slaves. Seven of those 15 southern states had already withdrawn from the United States and formed the Confederate States of America after Abraham Lincoln was sworn in as president of the United States. Despite the hopes of President Lincoln that the secession would end without conflict, the two regions fought a civil war from 1861 to 1865 that exploited the distinctions between the northern states and the southern states. The primary reason why the war was being fought (at least from the perspective of Lincoln and the people in the northern states) changed during the year 1863 from regaining the unification of the country to the abolition and resulting emancipation of black slaves throughout the United States.

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