On April 12, 1861, a brutal war broke out between the north and the south called the Civil War. Some say the north, or Union, went to war to abolish slavery, but the south, or Confederates, went to war for states’ rights. Abraham Lincoln, who was president at the time, called the nation “a house divided” because the north and south did not agree. Four long years later, the Union won the victory on May 9, 1865. There are many theories of why the Civil War started, but most say it is from slavery. President Abraham Lincoln stated about slavery, “ All knew that this interest was, somehow, the cause of the war”( Guelzo 1). Others believed there was different reasons. Some say it was territorial expansion and others say it was states’ rights (Causes …show more content…
Southerners relied on slaves to most of their work( Guelzo 1). Slaves farmed, cleaned, and anything else their owner wanted them to do. Although there were close to 4 million slaves, only ⅓ of southerners owned and used slaves( North and South 1). Cotton and tobacco were the most common crops. Unlike the north transportation was more difficult other than water ( North and South 1). Bleeding Kansas was one of the many battles during the Civil War. Before the battle, the Kansas-Nebraska Act was passed (Bleeding Kansas 1). This act stated that all questions of slavery in new territories were decided by the settlers, not the Congress( Guelzo 1). The supporters of slavery did not agree, which then, Bleeding Kansas began. More than 50 people were killed which is where “bleeding kansas’ came from. Even though this was not the biggest or the deadliest battle, it was still a major battle of the Civil war. The Ku Klux Klan, or commonly known as the KKK, was a group of violent whites who opposed blacks( Ingalls 1). This group would murder blacks for no real reason. The KKK members wore robes and hoods, burned crosses at meetings, and burned crosses to scare nonmembers away( Ingalls 1). By 1870, the Ku Klux Klan reached nearly every southern state( Ku Klux Klan