The Civil War, the only major war fought on American soil, has a particular hold on the American Consciousness. Before the war broke out in 1861, white Southerners had the hightest average standard of living in the world. Corn, tobacco, indigo, rice, sugarcane, hempf and cutton were the main crops grown on southern plantantions. These large plantations would have been impossible to run without slave labour. From 1619 to 1808 around 650.000 Africans were brought to the United States, mostly to the South. Although only one quarter of all Southerners owned slaves in 1860, the regional economy had grown dependent on the institution. The growing importance of industry in the North, on the other hand, made slavery less important ot he northern economy. Anti-slavery movements began in the early 19th century up north. Although the legal importation of slaves ended in 1808, as required by the Constitution, slavery itself did not. Nineteen states(in the North and West) prohibited slavery by 1861 and 15 (mostly in the South) still permitted it. Eleven southern states had seceded from the Union by 1861 over the issue of slavery. They feared that President Lincoln would ban or restrict slavery in the entire nation. Many southerners also beliebed that the powers of the U.S. Government did not supersede the rights of the states. Realizing the elimination of slavery would threaten their economic survival, they formed the Confederate States of America and became a seperate nation. When the Confederacy attacked a U.S. military post in South Carolina, President Lincoln sent troops to recapture the fort. The South saw this as a declaration of war. The " War between the Staates" had begun.
Four years later a defeated and out-numbered Confederate army surrendered to the Union army. The newest military innovations such as trench warfare, mines, repeathing rifles and armoured ships had made this the first "modern" war in history. From 1861-1865, more than 600.000 lives were lost and 470.000 people were wounded. Every third household in the South had lost a son or father. Most of the railroad tracks had been destroyed, and cities such as Atlanta, Colombia, Richmond and Jackson had gone up in flames. The Atlantan newspaper editor Henry Grady wrote that after the war, the Confederate veteran returned to find "the house in ruins, his farm devastated, his slaves free, his stock killed, his barns empty, his trade destroyed, his money worthless."