ipl-logo

Summary Of The Documentary 'The Unfinished Nation-House Divided'

631 Words3 Pages
bulb-icon

Recommended: American Revolution Introduction

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,

Show More
Related
338 Words | 2 Pages

The Civil War. Louis P. Masur’s book, The civil War: a Concise History, Is a book that gives an overview of the civil war from 18 to 1800, Providing multiple causes an consequences that emerged from the war. The book begins by reviewing the origins of the war. Chapter one covers the issues between northern and southern states and the tension over right and slave possession. The tension created a conflict that raised a number of political, social, and military events that then proceeded into a battle to abolish slavery from the colonies.

Read More
861 Words | 4 Pages

The Civil War is one of the bloodiest wars in American history, but what started it? What did it lead to? In the book, “Two Miserable Presidents”, by Steve Sheinkin, the author explains events that led up to the civil war and how they were finally resolved through the leadership of Abraham Lincoln. Throughout the book, we learn about the causes of the Civil War through anecdotes and we learn “everything your schoolbooks didn’t tell you about the Civil War.” He gives a humorous 13 step guide in ripping a country in two and names each section of the book a with a captivating yet true title.

Read More
642 Words | 3 Pages

The Civil War was a battle of great importance to our history of the United States. On April 12th, 1861 this battle broke out between the Union States, North, and the Confederate States, such as the South. The Civil War took place all throughout the United states, and did not come to an end until the Union won the war on May 9, 1856. So, our question of “What caused the Civil War”, comes with three important answers. The three main causes of the Civil War between the North and the South were Economic, Social, and Political differences.

Read More
498 Words | 2 Pages

The Civil War was a war fought from 1861 to 1865 to determine the survival of the Union or independence for the Confederacy. The Civil War was when America broke up and went to war with each other. More than 620,000 were killed and millions were injured. The main reason it started was because of slavery. Southern states seceded from the Union because they wanted slavery, they had different economics, and they didn't want any more compromises.

Read More
777 Words | 4 Pages

The last major Confederate armies surrendered to the United States in April of 1865. The war bankrupted the South, left its roads, farms, and factories in ruins, and all but wiped out an entire generation of men. The southern states were occupied by Union soldiers, rebuilt, and gradually re-admitted to the United States over the course of twenty difficult years known as the Reconstruction Era.

Read More
949 Words | 4 Pages

From 1861 to 1865, America experienced the tragedy of a division of her own people, North and South, whose hostilities toward one another exploded into a war which left the South devastated with defeat, and the North victorious, but uncertain of what that victory meant. It was to be expected that the armies on both sides would suffer hardships, but the southern civilians could not have been prepared for the lesson in privation which the war entailed. From the beginning of the war, the South was faced with the superior strength of the North. The northern states could boast of 22,000,000 people while the states of the new Confederacy contained roughly 9,000,000 inhabitants with Negro slaves constituting about 3,500,000 of this sparse population.

Read More
1696 Words | 7 Pages

Lylah Cassidy Honors US History Ms. McKinnon 16 March 2023 Reconstruction DBQ The Civil War ended in 1865 after four long years of American bloodshed. The South lost and slavery would never again be legal in the United States. The states that seceded would eventually be readmitted to the Union under certain conditions and the role of the federal government over the states was proven. This period after the Civil War from 1865 - 1877 is known as Reconstruction.

Read More
1298 Words | 6 Pages

“More than a quarter of a million had dies in the war, so that from a fourth to a third of the able bodied white men were gone… and over 35,000 were lost in the war.” All classes of Southerners were affected. In March 1877, Congress made the Reconstruction Act, which “divided the South into five military districts and called for the creation of new state governments, with black men given the right to vote.” Farmers and plantation owners also struggled after slavery. Until sharecropping was invented.

Read More
716 Words | 3 Pages

During the Reconstruction Era in 1865, many U.S Americans died during the Civil War fighting against the Confederate States of America. The number of deaths is estimated about 600,000, which left a legacy ruin for the South (Lecture notes). The Civil War might have killed over 600,000 Americans, but it also helped build many new things. The War fused the nation into a more economic and social nation by building more systems such as banks, railroads and most importantly a new society committed to industrialization (Lecture notes). It also changed slaves lives because the war destroyed slavery!

Read More
1654 Words | 7 Pages

The reason why the United States fought in a Civil War was due to the North and the South not being able to reach an agreement on which states should become slave states, and which would remain free states. This Disagreement was caused by the United States gaining several new states and territories from the Mexican-American war. After that war had ended the South feared that the North would vote to ban slavery for good because the land America gained from Mexico gave the north more states. The Civil War was also caused by fights that broke out in the new states and territories between the North and the South. Due to all the fighting in the states and the disagreements in congress, the United States ended up in a Civil War that split the nation

Read More
1063 Words | 5 Pages

The living legacy of the United States Civil War is a complicated time in American history one finds difficult to describe. The ramification of the war prior, during and after still haunt the current citizens who call The States their home. Tony Horwitz’s book Confederates in the Attic: Dispatches from the Unfinished Civil War looks at the wide gap of discontent that still looms in the late 1990s. For some southerners, the Confederacy still lives on through reenactments, stories and beliefs. For others in the South, reminders the land was dedicated to the Confederacy spark hatred and spite.

Read More
1667 Words | 7 Pages

Similar to many quarrels dating back before it could even be recorded, a clash of beliefs resulted in the beginning of a war that would recreate the very nation built on the freedom and rights of those who inhabit it. This rather large and groundbreaking ordeal began April 12th of 1861 at the very beginning of the Civil War. A nation had been split in two by conflicted views that would forever hold a place in the descendants of those who fought. These two sides were titled Union and Confederate, two names that would separate like oil and water way beyond their reign. Though they share similarities within flags summarized as a sign of freedom and the fight for what they believed in, it was their convictions that separated one from the other.

Read More
896 Words | 4 Pages

The Civil War marked a defining moment in United States history. Long simmering sectional tensions reached a critical stage in 1860-1861 when eleven slaveholding states seceded and formed the Confederate States of America. Political disagreement gave way to war in April 1861, as Confederates insisted on their right to leave the Union and the loyal states refused to allow them to go. Four years of fighting claimed almost 1.5 million casualties directly affected untold civilians, and freed four million enslaved African Americans. The social and economic system based on chattel slavery that the seceding states had sought to protect lay in ruins.

Read More
485 Words | 2 Pages

After, The Supreme Court’s confirmation on the legality of slavery in the territories convinced a lot of Southerners that the Northern was seeking the destruction of the “peculiar institution” that was sustained, which made the Southern, and Northern ties almost on its last straw. Then Lincoln’s election was the final straw, and made seven of the Southern states seceding from the United States. When the Civil War was over The Union won even though their armies weren’t as great as the South’s they managed a close victory possibly because of The Union’s sheer number of troops, but even though The Union won they lost a great leader, Abraham Lincoln who was assassinated by a Confederate sympathizer John Wilkes which turned the hearts of the people of the United States dearly, thus ending the American Civil War at a cost of 620,000 soldiers from both sides, plus a great leader Abraham

Read More
720 Words | 3 Pages

It is eerily personal, as we complete this course reading about the civil war and living through today’s adversarial climate of protesters, division of social, economic and political parties. As Abraham Lincoln said in the Gettysburg Address “and that government of the people, by the people, for the people, shall not perish from this earth” (Lincoln 428). The Civil War, while largely believed to be largely about slavery it appears to me that state’s right played just as an important role in the actual cause and continuance of the war. The division of the states and their prosperity, industry, education and representation in Congress divided this country, much as it is today.

Read More

More about Summary Of The Documentary 'The Unfinished Nation-House Divided'

Open Document