A Nation Divided Unit 3, Lesson 2

North and South Since colonial times, enslaved Africans had been forced to work in North America on plantations – Plantation  huge farm that grew crops such as cotton, rice, and sugarcane

Plantations

North and South 1840  2.5 million enslaved Africans in US – Most lived in slave states – Southern states where slavery was legal Free states – Northern states where slavery was illegal (Ohio)

The Issue of Slavery Arguments were dividing the nation by the mid-1800s. Abolitionists  wanted the government to abolish, or end slavery Other people felt states should decide for themselves whether slavery was allowed

The Issue of Slavery Ohio senators Salmon P. Chase and Benjamin Wade spoke against slavery in the US Congress. Many southerners supported slavery because they relied on slaves to work on plantations.

Ohio Abolitionists Many Ohioans fought slavery 1817  Charles Osborn started the first antislavery newspaper in the United States in Mount Pleasant Some abolitionists worked to help enslaved people escape.

The Underground Railroad Abolitionists helped enslaved people escape on a system of secret routes known as the Underground Railroad. – Routes led to places such as Canada where slavery was illegal – Slaves were fed and given shelter by people who opposed slavery

Underground Railroad

The Underground Railroad The homes where runaway slaves hid were called stations. Conductors  people who helped move runaway slaves from one station to the next Harriet Tubman & John Parker = conductors who were former slave John Rankin & Levi Coffin = Ohio conductors who opposed slavery for religious reasons Worked with Parker

The Civil War Harriet Beecher Stowe wrote Uncle Tom’s Cabin, a fictional book about slavery. – Best seller – Drew more attention to the issue of slavery 1861  Abraham Lincoln became president Many Southerners believed that Lincoln would abolish slavery A total of 11 states seceded, or withdrew, from the US – Formed a new country called the Confederate States of America (the Confederacy)

Union vs. Confederacy

Union vs. Confederate Troops

Harriet Beecher Stowe

Ohioans in the Civil War Lincoln wanted to keep the US (the Union) together Lincoln 1861  Confederates fired on Fort Sumter in South Carolina – Marked the start of the Civil War a civil war = a war between people in the same country

Ohioans in the Civil War Ohio was divided over the war Clement Vallandigham  Dayton congressman, led the Ohioans who did not support the wary. Ohio stayed in the Union. More than 300,000 soldiers from Ohio joined the Union army Ohioans fought in every major battle of the war and also worked as doctors and nurses

Ohioans in the Civil War Ohio’s factories and farms helped supply the Union army. Cincinnati become a major builder of ironclad warships

Ohioans in the Civil War July 1863  Confederate General John H. Morgan led 400 soldiers into eastern Ohio Captured at West Point, Ohio Several Union generals came from Ohio George McClellan, William Tecumseh Sherman, and Ulysses S. Grant 1864  Lincoln made Grant commander of the entire Union army 1865  war ended when Confederate general Robert E. Lee surrendered to Grant at Appomattox Court House in Virginia

Surrender