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Introduction

Anti-slavery poster form the 1850s

Credit: Courtesy of American Memory

One of the great tragedies of American history was the treatment of African-Americans. African slaves arrived with some of the earliest European settlers, and slavery had been a centuries-old institution in America by the 1850s.

Civil War, American
The chief and immediate cause of the war was slavery. Southern states, including the 11 states that formed the Confederacy, depended on slavery to support their economy. Southerners used slave labor to produce crops, especially cotton. Although slavery was illegal in the Northern states, only a small proportion of Northerners actively opposed it.

—Source: “Civil War, American.” Microsoft® Encarta® Online Encyclopedia 2000

An animation showing when United States territories and states forbade or allowed slavery, 1789–1861. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

"The Anti-Slavery Society Convention, 1840" by Benjamin Haydon (1841). (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Slaves at work on a One Hundred Dollar Confederate States of America banknote. Issued during the American Civil War (1861–1865). (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

English: The Official Medallion of the British...

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Confederate General Robert E. Lee poses in a late April 1865( http://www.archives.gov/research/civil-war/photos/#portraits ) portrait taken by Mathew Brady in Richmond, Virginia. Lee's surrender to Union General Ulysses S. Grant at Appomattox Court House on 9 April 1865, soon before this portrait was taken, marked the end of the American Civil War. Dust and scratches removed by Thegreenj (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Marais des Cygnes massacre (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

A One Hundred Dollar Confederate States of America banknote dated December 22, 1862. Issued during the American Civil War (1861–1865). (Photo credit: Wikipedia)