CIVIL WAR (1861-1865)

The controversy over the enslavement of black people and the presidential elections in 1860
in which Abraham Lincoln won, provoked that Southern states (South Carolina, Mississippi,
Florida, Alabama, Georgia, Louisiana, Texas, Virginia, Arkansas, North Carolina and
Tennessee) seceded the Union (North) and created their own country called Confederate
States of America (CSA) with Jefferson David as President, they didn’t want laws that would
affect them. The war started when The South attacks Fort Sumter in April 1861 after Lincoln
was inaugurated President. Ulysses S. Grant leaded the Union’s army vs Confederacy’s army
leaded by Robert E. Lee. In 1863, Lincoln issues an executive order called The Emancipation
Proclamation to free many slaves. The CSA wasn’t recognized as a country by any other
country. In 1865, General Lee, the leader of the Confederate Army, surrendered to General
Ulysses S. Grant at The Appomattox Court House in Virginia because of the lack of weapons
and the war ended.
RECONSTRUCTION (1865-1877)
In 1865, Lincoln is killed and Andrew Johnson becomes President and the reconstruction
begins. The South is occupied by Federal troops while state governments, economies, and
infrastructure are rebuilt. Fourth Reconstruction Acts passed (1867-1868). In 1869, Ulysses
S. Grant becomes president. Although allied with the Radical Republicans, he didn´t provide
strong leadership for Reconstruction. In 1870, the Fifteenth Amendment to the U.S.
Constitution gave the vote to all male citizens regardless of color or previous condition of
servitude. In 1875, Civil Rights Act enacted by Congress provides blacks with the right to
equal treatment in public places and transportation but later this act was declared
unconstitutional. The Reconstruction ended under the presidency of Rutherford B. Hayes in
1877. He removed the federal troops from the South and the state governments took over.