Essay on Concept Investigation part 2 civil war

Submitted By szcuckerman
Words: 986
Pages: 4

Melani Zuckerman
Period 3
2/22/14
Concept Investigation Part 2
Right There Questions:
1-How many fatalities occurred through the course of the Civil War?
It is impossible to know for sure, because of the spotty records from that time period. The records indicate that there were about 250 thousand deaths on the Confederate side, and 350 thousand on the Union side. This would make a total of upwards of 600,000 deaths. However, modern historians indicate that the real number could be between 750 and 850 thousand fatalities.

2-Which states seceded to the Confederacy and when?
Through the course of the Civil War, eleven southern states seceded from the Union and joined the Confederacy. The first was South Carolina in 1860. Mississippi, Florida, Alabama, Georgia, Louisiana, Texas, Virginia, Arkansas, North Carolina, and Tennessee, all seceded in 1861. These were the states that fought and surrendered to the Union. All other states either stayed with the union or declared themselves neutral.

3-How long did the Civil War last?
The Civil War officially started April 12, 1861, when a Confederate Artillery opened fire at Fort Sumter. However, there was conflict and violence before this date. The war officially ended on April 1st, 1865. This makes the war last about 4 years.

4-Did slaves fight on both sides of the war?
Yes. At first, the Confederacy forced slaves to do menial work at the front lines of the war, but the slaves frequently escaped and provided the Union with information. The confederacy then allowed the blacks to fill in for white soldiers. On the Union side, black soldiers were not forced to fight, but volunteered to fight, because they believed in the cause.

5- What were women's roles on both sides of the Civil War?
Most feminists, but not all women, were opposed to slavery, because they believed in equal rights for all. Both sides of the Civil War prohibited any female soldiers from joining the ranks, however some did anyway. They faked their names and rarely showered in order to conceal their identity. Most women assumed the role of the caretaker. They were often nurses on the front lines, or chefs. Some of them even became spies to the other side.

Think about it questions:
1-Why was slavery more integrated into the Southern Culture compared to the North?
When slaves were originally brought to Jamestown in 1619, they definitely had their advantages. They eventually spread to every single colony, and later, every single state. However, the southern states flourished off of cash crops such as tobacco, rice, or cotton. The whites did not want to pay hundreds of people to perform menial labor like picking out seeds from cotton, and so plantations used hundreds and hundreds of slaves to keep them afloat. The South relied on these slaves much more heavily than in the north, where slaves were more like servants or personal assistants. Therefore, when the idea of no slavery happened, Southerners reacted worse because they knew if this happened they would lose money and be forced to change their lifestyle. This and other differences ultimately led to the Civil War.

2- Why was Abraham Lincoln against slavery?
There is no doubt that Abraham Lincoln's position on slavery was extremely influential on the Civil War. Lincoln claimed that he was not "antislavery" but rather against the expansion of slavery. Lincoln was a politician. His main goal was to win the Civil War, not to be an abolitionist. Lincolns ideas sprouted from the party that he belonged to. Abraham Lincoln was a Republican, and so he shared many perspectives with others from the party. He naturally wanted to be well known and excepted, and so he presented views similar to his republican counterparts. This is why he had this slightly changed perspective on slavery.

3- How are we seeing the