A New United States

When you look back at the history of our nation, many events pop out that changed us for better or worse. Independence, slavery, and civil rights all helped contribute to what our country is today. However, the most important event was the Civil War, which pitted brothers against brothers, fathers against sons. The price of this war? Casualties on the Confederate side totaled to about 260,000, while the Union side lost over 360,000. Just these two combined accounted for nearly all the deaths in all other American wars combined.

         One large political change after the Civil War was the increase in the federal government's power and authority. Before the war, laws that were passed by the federal government gave them more control over individuals, but after the war, no state ever threatened leaving the Union again. Also, because of the war, the Northern economies flourished while the Southern economies (mostly plantations run by slaves) suffered.

         The most revolutionary change brought on by the Civil War was not economic or technological. Instead, it was the freedom for African Americans. On September 22^nd 1862, President Abraham Lincoln issued the first draft of the Emancipation Proclamation. The second order named the confederate states that it would apply to.  This led to the ratification of the Thirteenth Amendment in 1865, which stated “neither slavery nor involuntary servitude, except as a punishment for crime whereof the party shall have been duly convicted, shall exist within the United States.” With this amendment, slavery was abolished in the United States and over 4 million African American slaves were now free.