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Abraham Lincoln became the 16th U.S. President with one of his campaign promises being to preserve the Union despite growing tensions throughout the country. He was fairly moderate and believed in avoiding war, despite the secession seeds that were forming. -
The Civil War began when Confederate forces fired on the Union's Fort Sumter. This was the official beginning of armed conflict between the Union and the Confederacy and sparked more secession from Southern states. -
This was one President Lincoln's most famous speeches. In this speech he declared enslaved people in the Confederate states to be free. This was significant as it shifted the war's focus from being about state's rights to ending slavery. This additionally allowed black men to enlist in Union's military forces. -
The Confederate general Robert E. Lee formally surrendered to Union general, Ulysses S. Grant, effectively ending the Civil War fighting. This opened the door for post-war reconstruction and reunification. -
President Lincoln was fatally shot by John Wilkes Booth while sitting in Ford's Theatre. He was the first president to be assassinated and his death shifted the political climate. After his death, the responsibilities for reconstruction were shifted to Andrew Johnson (Lincoln's vice president), who was known to be more favorable of Southern politics. -
These were laws passed in the Southern states as an attempt to control freed African Americans. It's main goal was to create conditions similar to slavery, while "following" the post-war laws that abolished slavery. They wanted to maintain the cheap labor force they had during and prior to the war.
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Congress ratified the 13th amendment which officially abolished slavery in every U.S. state and territory but made allowances for forced labor as punishment for a crime. This supported Lincoln's Emancipation Proclamation and ensured that slavery would not continue post-war. -
The first Civil Rights act in the U.S. was passed, in which Congress granted citizenship and equality to all those born in the U.S.. However, this did not include Native Americans. -
This act divided the Southern states into 5 different military districts as a way to gradually re invite them into Congress. The Union wanted to ensure that the South was following the rules of abolition post-war before they partnered together again to make national decisions in Congress. -
President Johnson became the first president to be impeached, when the House impeached him in 1868 because of his violation of the Tenure of Office Act. This act required the president to have approval of the Senate when removing members from their office. Johnson violated this with when he fired his Secretary of Defense.