Civil War Through Primary Sources

"This nation...shall have a new birth of freedom." President Abraham Lincoln delivered these words in his Gettysburg Address, a speech commemorating the fallen soldiers at the Battle of Gettysburg. The three-day battle, the bloodiest ever fought on American soil, was a turning point in the Civil War. The Union claimed victory, and the Confederacy suffered heavy losses, but both sides had thousands of casualties. Author Carin T. Ford explores this pivotal battle in American history and the famous speech that memorialized it forever.

In 1619, the first African slaves arrived in America. More than two hundred years later, African-American slaves continued to suffer under the cruelest and harshest conditions in the South. Slaves tried to escape, but it was difficult. However, during the mid-1800s, the Underground Railroad, a secret network of people and escape routes, finally gave many slaves hope. It helped thousands reach freedom. Author Carin T. Ford discusses the tragic story of slavery in American history, the heroes of the Underground Railroad, and the end of slavery in the United States.

The Civil War was fought mostly by men, but the war could not have been won without the courageous effort of women. During the war, women served as spies and nurses. Some disguised themselves as men to become soldiers. With their husbands, fathers, and sons away at battle, women had to hold down the home front. The task was hard, but it was necessary. In this stirring account, primary sources bring the remarkable stories of women in the Civil War into sharp focus.

The Civil War began as a struggle to reunite a divided nation, and it became a fight to end slavery. For African-American soldiers, the cause was always greater, freedom. African Americans had been enslaved in the United States for more than two hundred years. Slavery had fractured the nation into two parts, North and South. Through primary sources, author Carin T. Ford explores the brave African-American soldiers who helped the Union win the Civil War and abolish slavery forever.

In April 1861, Abraham Lincoln's prophetic words, "A house divided against itself cannot stand," came true when Confederate soldiers attacked Fort Sumter, beginning the American Civil War. The war pitted North against South, brother against brother, neighbor against neighbor. The issue of slavery had torn the nation apart. War would be required to put it back together. Author Carin T. Ford uses vivid primary sources to tell the story of the war that reunited the Union and ended slavery forever.

"If slavery is not wrong, nothing is wrong." When Abraham Lincoln said this, many Americans did not agree. Most of them lived in the South, where their economy depended on slave labor. In 1861, the year Lincoln became president, the conflict over slavery became a war between a divided nation. Although the Civil War was fought to reunite that nation, Lincoln eventually saw the greater cause: ending slavery forever in the United States. In striving to achieve this ultimate goal, President Lincoln took the most important first step, the Emancipation Proclamation.