United States History Student Edition

The United States, 1866 Following the Civil War, the United States was once again a whole country.

CANADA

N

Wash. Territory

E

W

Montana Territory

Maine

Vt.

S

Oregon

Minn.

N.H.

Idaho Territory

Mass.

Wis.

N.Y.

Dakota Territory

Mich.

Conn. R.I.

Pa.

Iowa

Nebraska Terr.

Del. N.J.

Nevada

Ohio

Utah Terr.

Ill. Ind.

Colorado Territory

W. Va.

Md. District of Columbia

Cali.

Va.

Kansas

Mo.

Tenn. Ky.

N.C.

Indian Terr.

Arizona Territory

New Mexico Territory

Ark.

S.C.

ATLANTIC OCEAN

Ga.

Miss. Ala.

Texas

La.

PACI FIC OCEAN

Fla.

States Territories Other areas

0

400 miles

MEXICO

400 kilometers

0

Albers Equal-Area projection

GEOGRAPHY CONNECTION 1. Patterns and Movement Using the map, describe the political geography of the United States at the end of the Civil War. 2. Exploring Regions With the Civil War over, what do you think might happen in the territories in the western United States?

Act of 1854, all of which attempted to resolve the controversy around slavery expanding into new territories and states. The issue of slavery also greatly affected the country’s politics. Members of the antislavery wing of one political party, the Whigs, joined some Democrats and others to form a new party, the Republican Party, in 1854. The election of a Republican president, Abraham Lincoln, in 1860, so concerned the South that the state of South Carolina seceded from the Union. In early 1861, other Southern states also left the Union and joined with South Carolina to form their own country, the Confederate States of America. Soon after, the Civil War erupted. The Civil War brought great changes to the country and, especially, to the lives of African Americans. In the South, many enslaved people

seeking freedom escaped behind Union lines as Union soldiers marched through. Then, in 1863, President Lincoln issued the Emancipation Proclamation, which ordered that enslaved African Americans in Confederate territory were free. Many saw the Proclamation as a signal that a Union victory would mean an end to slavery. Large numbers of formerly enslaved men served in the Union army, although in their own segregated regiments. With their aid, the Union was victorious. Yet the Civil War left hundreds of thousands of Americans dead and vast destruction in its wake. Now, Americans in both the North and the South would need to find a way to bring the divided country together, rebuild the devastated South, and help the formerly enslaved people become equal members of American society.

Reconstruction 477