Nation Divided

By early 1861, just before the outbreak of the Civil War in the United States, serious economic and ideological differences—among them states’ rights and slavery—divided the people of the young nation. These differences also divided the country geographically. Nineteen states, including the industrialized northern states, prohibited slavery, while fifteen southern states, whose economies depended more on agriculture, permitted the ownership of slaves. Eleven of the southern states withdrew from the Union and formed the Confederate States of America. However, the western counties of Confederate Virginia were strongly anti-secessionist and, after forming a break-away government, joined the Union in June 1863 as the state of West Virginia.

Appears in these articles

United States of America; Confederate States of America; American Civil War

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