Unit VI: "Now We Are Engaged in a Great Civil War": 1848- 1880

Content to be Covered:

1. The causes of the American Civil War came about over a period of time. A different way of life existed in the South than in the North. Though slavery was the root of the problem, it was not the whole problem.

2. When Abraham Lincoln was elected, southern states began to secede from the Union. The confederacy was born. The country went to war.

3. President Lincoln was a most remarkable president for a most remarkable period in history.

4. There are many heroes of the Civil War period, and the war affected the lives of many Americans in many ways.

5. At the end of the Civil War the Union was saved, slavery ended, but the problem of freedom for all still existed. Segregation separated the races in the South.

Teacher's Rationale:

This unit covers the period of time leading up to the Civil War, the war itself, and the implementation of segregation after Reconstruction. The students should recognize the fight against slavery was only one part, but an important one, in the series of events that culminated in the Civil War. While the thirteenth Amendment prohibited slavery after the war, segregation replaced it as a social and economic fact in the South.

Students were introduced to slavery, Abraham Lincoln, and segregation in the primary grade lessons of CROSSROADS. The lessons in this unit build on the understandings already taught and more fully develop the story and the chronology of these years.

Table of Contents:

Lesson 1:	Slavery and the Underground Railroad
Lesson 2:	The People of the Civil War
Lesson 3:	After the Civil War: Segregation
Unit 6:	Resources