US History › Section H · Civil War and Reconstruction › Topic H.1
Origins and outbreak of the Civil War
Between November 1860 and June 1861, eleven slave states left the Union and formed a new nation built to protect slavery. Understanding why they went, in their own stated words, is the starting point for understanding the war that followed.
In this topic
- An election that broke the Union
- Decades of conflict over slavery
- The Lower South secedes
- In their own words
- Worked example: reading a secession declaration
- States' rights and the defence of slavery
- Founding the Confederacy
- Last attempts at compromise
- Fort Sumter
- Worked example: from Fort Sumter to a wider war
- Common mistakes to avoid
- Key takeaways
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