This lesson helps students study life in the United States in the years before the Civil War. Students will gain a better understanding of why people grew willing to fight to defend their way of life. Many of the documents students will look at reflect the lives of ordinary people, those who would fill the ranks of the armies and those on the home front supporting the war effort. Students will learn about everyday life before the Civil War in the South and North to begin to understand which differences were significant.

Concepts

plantations, civil war

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Additional Tags

a nation divided, factory vs. plantation in the north and south, events leading to the civil war, pre civil war life, a nation divided (1848-60)

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Classroom Considerations

• Knovation Readability Score: 4 (1 low difficulty, 5 high difficulty)