The American Civil War began in 1861 after Abraham Lincoln had become president. The southern states from the Union because Lincoln wanted to slavery in all of America. In the south, farmers needed African slaves to work on their farms and keep the cotton price . The northern states concentrated on industry and the small farms didn't need slaves.

In February 1861 representatives of the southern states got together and formed the States of America. Their president was Jefferson Davis. Fighting broke out when the southerners a fort in South Carolina , which belonged to the Union. Fighting focused on the eastern states of Virginia, Maryland and Pennsylvania , as well as along the Mississippi River. The north set up a naval to stop the south from getting and being able to export their cotton .

In 1863, in the middle of the war, Abraham Lincoln abolished and freed the slaves in the southern states. In the Union, African Americans were allowed to fight side by side with white soldiers. In the summer of 1863 the Battle of Gettysburg became a point in the Civil War. Robert Lee's Confederate army was by the north. The union's Ulysses Grant captured much territory in the next months and by 1864 it was clear that the north would win.

Lee's forces on April 9, 1865. Five days later Abraham Lincoln was murdered when he a theatre performance in Washington. The Civil War was one of the bloodiest in American history. Over 600,000 soldiers on both sides died. While the in the north boomed because of wartime production, many farms and plantations in the southern states were completely .