The Unfinished Nation - House Divided documentary relates to our unit on the Civil War. The Civil War, also known as "The War Between the States," was fought between the United States of America and the Confederate States of America. The Confederate States of America was made up of a collection of eleven southern states that left the Union in 1860 and 1861(The Unfinished Nation, 2004). Most people thought this would be a quick war, which would cease within a matter of days or weeks (The Unfinished Nation, 2004). However, it lasted for an intense, lengthy four years from 1861-1865 (The Unfinished Nation, 2004). The Civil War was fought due to irreconcilable differences between the free (northern states) and slave states (southern states) over the power of the national government to prohibit slavery in the …show more content…
In support of this legislation, Thomas Nast's Emancipation Proclamation wood engraving depicts the elation felt by free slaves. It focuses on a newly former-enslaved family reading the proclamation with joy, surrounded by images of the cruelty they or other slaves endured. In 1865, the last major Confederate armies surrendered to the United States (The Unfinished Nation, 2004). The war bankrupted the South, leaving roads, farms, and factories in ruins, and all but wiped out an entire generation of men (The Unfinished Nation, 2004). More than 620,000 died in the Civil War, more than any other war in American history (The Unfinished Nation, 2004). The southern states were occupied by Union soldiers, rebuilt, and gradually re-admitted to the United States over the course of twenty years known as the Reconstruction Era (The Unfinished Nation, 2004). Northern victory in the war preserved the United States and slavery was abolished nation-wide (The Unfinished Nation, 2004). However, these achievements came at the cost of about 625,000 lives (The Unfinished Nation,