Directions: Watch the film, “The Civil War: Causes” and answer the following questions as thoroughly as
possible. Answer in complete sentences. Your responses will be handed in and graded.
1) How many Americans fought in the Civil War? How many died?
620,000 Americans fought in the Civil War out of which 360,222 Union soldiers dies and 258,000
Confederate deaths.
2) What were slave conditions like before the Civil War?
They were not free, they had no rights and were owned by plantation owners. They were treated
like animals and tortured both physically and mentally.
3) Why did the cotton gin help spread slavery?
The cotton gin reduced the labor to removing seeds, but it did not reduce the need of enslaved
labor to grow and pick the cotton. In fact, cotton growing became so profitable for slave owners that is
increased the demand for slaves and land.
4) How many slaves were there in 1860?
There were 3,952,838 slaves in 1860
5) What were the demands of the abolitionists?
To abolish slavery and free the slaves.
6) Why did violence erupt in Kansas in the 1850s?
Antislavery groups in the northeast set up so-called emigrant aid societies to send 1,200 New
Englanders to fights Kansas against Slavery.
7) What were the effects of John Brown’s raid on the North? What were the effects on the South?
It increased tensions between the north and the south. In 1859, three years after his raid at
Pottawatomie Creek in Kansas John attacked the federal arsenal.
8) What was Lincoln’s platform in the 1860 election?
He was a Republican
9) What was the last straw leading the South to secede? Who seceded first?
Abraham Lincoln’s election in November 1860 was the final straw, and within three months
seven southern states-had seceded from the America
10) What was the Confederate Constitution like?
It also includes a nonrenewable six-year term for the president and a line-item veto. It explicitly
supports slavey and reasserts the principle of state’s rights that had dominated under the Article of
Confederation.
11) What was Lincoln’s message at his inauguration?
It addressed focussed on reassuring the southern states that the president would not try to strip
them of their slaves and that he would try to find a way to help them secure slavery if it would make
them happy.
12) When and where did the Civil War begin?
April 12, 1861 Confederate troops fired on Fort Sumter in South Carolina’s Charleston Harbor.
The Union forces surrendered within 34 hours.
13) What was the condition of the U.S. military at the start of the Civil War?
Their daily lives were full of hardships; hunger, bad weather, and poor clothing
14) What advantages did the North have in the Civil War?
They had geographic advantage. The north controlled the seas and its 21,000 miles of railroad
track allowed the troops and supplies to be transported wherever they were needed.
15) What did Lincoln do during the Civil War that was technically illegal? What was his policy on
slavery at the beginning of the war? How did this policy change?
Lincoln suspended Habeas Corpus. Lincoln was not against slavery at the beginning of the war,
but after the South repeatedly ignored his attempts at peace and started beating the Union, Lincoln
wrote the Emancipation Proclamation.
16) What were the effects of the Battle of Manassas?
The First Battle of Manassas destroyed Lincoln’s preconceived notion that the war would be over
quickly and led to the appointing of George McClellan in the war as well as teaching the Generals how
war can be more effectively conducted.
17) What were George McClellan’s strengths as a general? What were his weaknesses?
McClellan was good at rallying troops and raising morale. However, he was very indecisive and
passive.
18) How would you summarize the first year of the war?
Very bad for both sides, but worse for the Union