The War Begins

Describe Lincoln's election, secession, Jefferson Davis, and Fort Sumter.

Warm-up, learn, try it together, practice, then a quick check. About 15 minutes.

What children learn in Level 64

In 1860, Abraham Lincoln was elected president. He promised not to touch slavery where it was, but he opposed spreading it west. He won without a single Southern state.
Southern leaders feared that slavery would be doomed. South Carolina voted to secede, which means to formally leave a country. Georgia followed in January 1861.
Those states formed the Confederate States of America, with Jefferson Davis as president. Eleven states joined in all, and its capital became Richmond, Virginia.
The states that stayed were called the Union. Four slave states, called border states, stayed too: Delaware, Maryland, Kentucky, and Missouri. Lincoln's first goal was to keep the Union together.
Fort Sumter, in Charleston's harbor, was still held by the Union. On April 12, 1861, Confederate guns opened fire. No one died in the attack, but the fort surrendered. The Civil War had begun.

Georgia Standards of Excellence in Social Studies:

SS4H5.c — Identify major battles, campaigns, and events: Fort Sumter, Gettysburg, the Atlanta Campaign, Sherman's March to the Sea, and Appomattox Court House.
SS4H5.d — Describe the roles of Abraham Lincoln, Robert E. Lee, Ulysses S. Grant, Jefferson Davis, Thomas "Stonewall" Jackson, and William T. Sherman.