According to Confederate leaders, the defense of slavery was the primary reason for secession

Was the Civil War really about states' rights?

The Civil War was fought over slavery, and Confederate leaders and supporters admitted as much in the build-up to the war and after. But later on, after the South's defeat, the lie of the Lost Cause was pushed—and it persists to this day. This four-minute video details the story of the Lost Cause, "state's rights", Confederate monuments, and the machinations behind them.

Abraham Lincoln's victory in 1860 sparked Southern secession—even before his inauguration

Abraham Lincoln's election on an antislavery expansion platform convinced many Southerners that their way of life was under threat. Within three months, seven states seceded from the Union—forming the Confederacy—before Lincoln took office in March 1861.

11 states formed the Confederacy, with 2 others claiming allegiance

Between December 1860 and June 1861, 11 Southern states officially seceded to form the Confederacy. Pro-Confederate factions in Missouri and Kentucky also declared secession, but both states remained largely under Union control throughout the war.

A section condemning slavery was cut from the Declaration

Thomas Jefferson included a passage in his original draft denouncing slavery. This explainer from the Henry Ford Museum explores why Congress removed it to preserve colonial unity and how that decision shaped the nation's earliest political compromises.

US westward expansion—and the status of slavery in the new territories—was a major cause of the American Civil War

The addition of new western lands forced the nation to confront whether slavery would spread beyond the South. Each debate over the admission of a new state sharpened the divide between free and slaveholding regions.

The South built its wealth largely from slave labor

Before the Civil War, the Southern economy relied on roughly 4 million enslaved people producing cash crops such as cotton, rice, and sugarcane. Their forced labor generated immense profits—the South produced 75% of the world's cotton by 1860.

The Emancipation Proclamation shifted the purpose of the war for the Union

Issued on Jan. 1, 1863, the Emancipation Proclamation declared enslaved people in Confederate-held territory free, redefining the Union's cause from merely preserving the nation to abolishing slavery.

The Dred Scott decision denied citizenship to people of African descent

In 1857, the Supreme Court ruled in Dred Scott v. Sandford that Black Americans could not be US citizens. The decision heightened an already brewing conflict and became a key factor in pushing the nation toward civil war.

Most Confederate soldiers and leaders after the Civil War were pardoned

After surrender, most Confederate soldiers were pardoned and returned home, while leaders like Jefferson Davis faced short imprisonment. The South came under military occupation, Confederate money became worthless, and many former officers were barred from public office.

Support for slavery helped drive Texas to revolt against Mexico

Mexico abolished slavery in 1829, but many Anglo-American settlers in Texas brought enslaved people and refused to comply. Their desire to preserve slavery was a major factor in Texas’s 1836 rebellion and independence from Mexico.

The Confederate flag that most people recognize was not the national flag

The familiar Confederate flag was actually a battlefield banner; the Confederacy's true national flag, the "Stars and Bars," featured a blue canton with white stars and red-white-red stripes resembling the US flag.

The attack on Fort Sumter was the Civil War's first battle

Confederate forces fired on Union-held Fort Sumter in Charleston Harbor on April 12, 1861, after Lincoln refused to surrender it. The bombardment lasted 34 hours, forcing a Union surrender and marking the beginning of the Civil War.

The 13th Amendment's criminal exception enabled new forms of forced labor

Southern states exploited the amendment's clause allowing slavery "as punishment for crime" to arrest thousands of Black Americans on minor charges, leasing them to private employers through convict labor systems that persisted for decades.

White supremacist groups like the Ku Klux Klan emerged to undermine Reconstruction

Founded in 1865 by former Confederate officers in Tennessee, the Ku Klux Klan used terror, murder, and intimidation to suppress Black political power and restore white Democratic control across the postwar South.

Approximately 180,000 African Americans served in Union forces

About 180,000 Black soldiers—roughly 10% of the Union army—served in the United States Colored Troops after 1863. Despite lower pay and discrimination, they were crucial to the Union victory.

Madison condemned slavery in theory while owning slaves

James Madison argued that slavery violated Revolutionary ideals. Yet, he inherited and managed more than 100 enslaved people to operate the family's 3,000-acre plantation, brought enslaved laborers to the White House, and later sold them for personal profit.

Congress's Wade-Davis Bill demanded harsher terms for Southern reentry

Passed in 1864, the Wade-Davis Bill required 50% of white male voters to swear loyalty and guarantee emancipation before readmission. Lincoln pocket-vetoed it, rejecting Congress's stricter approach.

Whitman's antislavery writing often focused on white Americans

The poet was openly opposed to slavery, though some of his writing focuses on abolition’s benefits for white people rather than for the lives of the enslaved.

The nullification crisis tested whether states could defy federal law

In the 1830s, South Carolina declared federal tariffs void within its borders. President Andrew Jackson threatened military force, Congress passed a compromise tariff, and the episode ended with federal authority prevailing over state nullification.

The Electoral College was shaped in part to balance North–South power

This article examines how the Electoral College emerged from political compromise, including efforts to placate slave-owning Southern states and concerns that Northern states would dominate a direct national presidential vote.

Truth is best known for her 1851 speech in Akron linking abolition and women's rights

At the 1851 Women's Rights Convention, Truth gave a speech that cemented her legacy, weaving together abolition and women's rights in remarks that became among the most quoted of the 19th century.

The SEC is a powerhouse conference with 16 teams and a rich Southern football tradition

Formed in 1933 after splitting from the Southern Conference, the Southeastern Conference began with 13 schools. It has since grown to 16 members, defining college football with numerous national championships and rabid regional rivalries.

Hear the story of the largest single escape attempt by enslaved people in American history

On April 15, 1848, 77 enslaved individuals in Washington, DC, boarded a ship named the Pearl in the largest single escape attempt in US history. Their capture led to riots and intensified the conflict over fugitive slave laws.

The rivalry between Alexander Hamilton and Thomas Jefferson centered on federalism—the question of how much power the federal government should hold relative to the states.

Arlington National Cemetery was built on land seized from Robert E. Lee's family during the Civil War

Established in 1864 on a plantation once owned by Lee's wife, Arlington now spans 639 acres and is home to more than 400,000 veterans and their eligible dependents. The cemetery conducts as many as 27 funerals every weekday.

Key was initially opposed to the War of 1812

Like the majority of Americans, Francis Scott Key was opposed to the US declaring war on Great Britain, calling the move “abominable.” His feelings began to change after the British raided Washington, D.C. He joined the Georgetown Artillery shortly after.

Abraham Lincoln was almost assassinated weeks before his inauguration as he traveled from Illinois to DC through Baltimore in 1861; it took two independent claims for Lincoln to be convinced the threat was real

Meet the 56 signers of the Declaration of Independence—most of whom didn't put pen to paper until August 2, 1776—and see their original signatures.

After the Boston Tea Party, colonists switched to coffee, which became the main morning drink for revolutionaries.

Many legends about George Washington, including his supposed wooden teeth and the story of cutting down the cherry tree, lack evidence.

The story of Dollree Mapp, whose legal challenge over her 1957 conviction for possessing "obscene material" led to a major strengthening of the Fourth Amendment

Despite being favored by 87% of Americans, Congress does not have term limits.

Georgia O'Keeffe's flower paintings are often assumed to be sexual, though the artist claimed she was simply interested in highlighting the beauty of flowers that most people neglect

The first line of 'immortal' human cells, which can divide indefinitely and are used in scientific research, was nonconsensually taken from a Black woman.

The Great Salt Lake's distinct dual coloration results from high-salinity organisms that only live in the northern portion and produce a purple protein.

The American cockroach is actually from Africa, an apparent hitchhiker aboard ships carrying enslaved people, with evidence suggesting the bug may have arrived in the New World as early as the 1600s.

Louisiana's 'Cancer Alley' is infamous for having some of the highest industrial pollution, toxic air emissions, and cancer risks in the US.

The Brothers Grimm were lawyers before they were storytellers, and became interested in fairy tales as they began investigating how rules and customs had been passed down through cultures.

Famed poet TS Eliot rejected the manuscript for George Orwell's political fable 'Animal Farm,' writing that its criticism of authoritarianism was not 'the right point of view.'

The United States has had a tumultuous relationship with Cuba since its 1959 revolution, highlighted by a nuclear crisis and a decades-long trade embargo.

While the sun's gravity keeps the planets in orbit, their gravity also pulls on the sun, causing it and everything else in the solar system to orbit around a mutual balance point called the barycenter—the true center of the solar system.

The word 'jazz' evolved from 'jasm,' 19th-century American slang for 'energy'

70 years ago today, city officials in Santa Cruz, California, banned rock 'n' roll to protect its youth from corruption after witnessing a 'provocative' concert the night before.

Ebola infects and disables immune cells, triggering a cascade of events that leads to small blood clots throughout the body, weakening blood vessels and interrupting blood flow to key organs.

Warren Buffett's former professor Benjamin Graham is known as the 'father of value investing,' a strategy in which investors seek to buy stocks trading below their intrinsic worth.

In 2025, four executives from large tech companies were given positions in the US Army Reserves—including Palantir Chief Technology Officer Shyam Sankar, which reinforced Palantir's ties with the US military and its role as a leading defense partner.

The first steps to rebuilding your credit score include getting to know exactly what's on your credit report and figuring out how far you are from the '700 club,' or 'good score' range.

The Russia-Ukraine conflict is the largest ground war in Europe since World War II in terms of casualties, forces mobilized, and displacement of civilians.

Brandi Chastain, the star of the 1999 US victory over China in the 1999 Women's World Cup, was a last-second choice to take the penalty kick that sealed the victory.

Sears sold DIY house kits starting at $600 in its famous catalog from 1908 through the 1940s, resulting in roughly 10,000 'Sears and Roebuck houses' being built.