Fort Sumter

Fort Sumter book cover — FORT SUMTER Joanne Mattern rourke educational media Scan for Related Titles and Teacher Resources

Fort Sumter — page 1 — Chapter 1 A NATION ON THE EDGE In 1860 the United States had been a nation for less than one hundred years During the 1770s the thirteen British colonies had joined together to form a new nation made up of separate states By 1860 that nation had grown to thirty-three states However it was not easy to get all those states to work together as one United States Each state had its own laws and way of doing things The federal or national government also had laws Sometimes the state and federal laws did not agree Different laws about slavery would cause the biggest problem the United States would ever face 4

Fort Sumter — page 2 — Slavery had existed in the United States since colonial days But the northern states had gotten rid of slavery while the states in the South had not Southern states needed slaves to work on their plantations and allow them to produce goods such as cotton The southern states also did not want other states to tell them what to do As far as the South was concerned they had every right to keep slaves Southern plantation owners relied on slaves to work on their huge plantations The southern economy could not work without slaves 5

1

PAGE 1 OF 28

The only kids' eBook subscription service that offers thousands of high-quality books from well known publishers like HarperCollins, National Geographic and others.

JavaScript Required

Whoops! We're sorry but Epic doesn't work properly without JavaScript enabled. Check your web browser's settings to make sure it's enabled.