Mark Twain's America
Civil War and Education
Civil War
The civil war began in Abraham Lincoln was elected to be the president of the United States in January of 1861.The was fought by the “North” and “South,” or also know as the “Union” and the “Confederacy.”The North, or the Union, wanted slavery out of America, while the South, or the Confederacy, thought the opposite.
The war began because of the disagreement over slavery.
In 1860 the republicans, led by Abraham Lincoln, opposed the spread of slavery into the United States territory.
Lincoln won, but before his inauguration, seven slave states, later known as the Confederacy, had already been formed.
The war began on April 12th, 1861 when confederate soldiers fired upon Fort Sumter, which was a key fort of the Union Troops in North Carolina.
Lincoln then called for each state to provide troops so they could take back the fort.
The Union soon controlled all of the border states and created a naval blockade that soon defeated the confederates.
In the Fall of 1862, the confederate troops invasion into Maryland only resulted in a confederate retreat at the battle of Antietam, crippling the British intervention
Lincoln issued the Emancipation of Proclamation which made ending slavery a war goal.
By the Summer of 1862 in the West, the Union destroyed the Confederate river navy, and then much of their western armies.
The Union at Vicksburg split the Confederacy in two at the Mississippi River
In 1863, Robert E. Lee’s Confederate attack ended at the Battle of Gettysburg
Success in the west lead to Ulysses S. Grant command of all Union armies in 1864.
The Union gathered enough strength and manpower to attack the Confedaracy from all directions.
This lead to the surrender of General Lee to General Grant at Appomattox Court House on April 9, 1865.
The Civil War was one of the earliest industrial wars.The fight against slavery left over 620,000 soldiers dead on the battlefield.Railroads, the telegraph, steamships, and mass produced weapons were a big factor during this devastating war.The war was from April 12, 1861 to May 9, 1865.
Education in the 19th Century
The nineteenth century is referred to as “The Common School Period.”
In the 1840s the first organized school system was created.
School became a public thing. Unlike the old private education ways.
The common schools movement didn’t just happen overnight, many people had to work to convince people that it was the right move.
People such as Horace Mann and Henry Barnard believed that it would increase the opportunities for all children.
They believed it would create a bond between the “increasingly diverse population.
They also thought that more educated people could create a more stable society and less poverty and crime.
They ended up creating a statewide common school system.
By 1918 attendance laws existed in all of the United States of America.
They also helped develop a statewide attendance law.
Some other arguments for the common school were that it would help “Americanize” things.
It would help society be more efficient.
It could dilute religion and culture.
The first textbook was made by McGuffey Reader in 1833. This book had 50 lessons in it.