CHAPTER 1 TENSION IN CHARLESTON HARBOR April 1861 brought a welcoming spring to Charleston South Carolina Charleston Harbor one of the South's most beautiful waterways was covered with a blanket of blue sky filled with fleecy white clouds However this natural beauty was at odds with the drama that was playing out nearby Three of the four forts that ringed the harbor were armed with
cannons and guns of all sizes in preparation for battle All this firepower was aimed at Fort Sumter the fourth and newest fort Built of brick and stone Fort Sumter was perched like a jewel at the harbor's entrance Why were the other forts and batteries aiming their guns at Fort Sumter Coco The American flag flew over Fort Sumter in the spring of 1861 but the Confederates wanted to change that The question could be answered by the flag that flapped in the brisk breezes above Fort Sumter the
flag of the United States South Carolina and six other southern states were no longer a part of the United States and did not pledge their allegiance to its flag They had formed their own nation the Confederate States of America Once just another federal fort Fort Sumter was now enemy territory This ill will between the northern states which represented the Union and the southern Confederate states began long before that fateful month of April 1861 It was a conflict that had been brewing since the U S Constitution had been adopted in 1788 The Constitution called for a balance of power between the federal government and the governments of the individual states But this balance was threatened by the issue of slavery
Enslaved Africans had been brought to America since the early 1600s By the 1700s slavery was thriving in the South where the agricultural economy depended on unpaid labor to support its large plantations and smaller farms In the North the economy was becoming more based on manufacturing and trade so unskilled labor was less in demand and slavery gradually disappeared A growing number of northerners opposed slavery on moral grounds as well Some became abolitionists who actively supported making slavery illegal in the United States Through the first half of the 19th century Congress debated the slavery issue The debate grew more intense as new territories were created Proslavery groups wanted slavery allowed in
