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The University High School Band
The History and Theory of Music

The American Civil War

The original draft of the Declaration of Independence levied the following accusation against King George III:

He has waged cruel War against human Nature itself, violating its most Sacred Right of Life & Liberty in the Persons of a distant People who never offended him, captivating & carrying them into Slavery in another Hemisphere, or to incur miserable death in their Transportation thither. This piratical Warfare, the opprobrium of infidel Powers, is the Warfare of the Christian King of Great Britain. He has prostituted his Negative for Suppressing every legislative Attempt to prohibit or to restrain this execrable Commerce, determining to keep open a market where men should be bought & sold."

The clause was stricken from the Declaration in order to achieve unanimous support among the thirteen colonies. It was not lost on the American Founders that they were founding the United States on a contradiction, declaring that all people were created equal while supporting the practice of slavery. For all their achievements, a number of the signers of the Declaration did themselves hold enslaved people on their plantations. However, to preserve national unity, the issue was repeatedly postponed.

A Savage Encounter by Dan Nance

Over the next seventy years, American politics were split in two. One side would generally concede that slavery was not ideal, but argue that it was necessary to preserve their lifestyle. They claimed that the Constitution's statements about property gave them the right to choose to own slaves if they wished. They used anthropological arguments to claim that the victims of slavery did not count as persons. They said people who were opposed to slavery simply should not own slaves. It was also commonly argued that ending slavery would do more harm than good, damaging the livelihood of former slavers and consigning freed people to lives of poverty. This position was repeatedly held up in the Supreme Court in decisions like Prigg v. Pennsylvania (1841), Strader v. Graham (1851), Ableman v. Booth (1859), and most famously Dred Scott v. Sanford (1857).

The other side, however, known as abolitionists, argued that slavery was a morally unacceptable evil and ought to be eliminated.

The Surrender of General Lee by Tom Lovell

For decades, a deadlock was purposely maintained between these two sides in Congress until the election of 1860. The Republican candidate, Abraham Lincoln, defeated two pro-slavery Democrats, winning the presidency. After the election, seven southern states immediately seceded from the Union, forming the Confederate States of America, electing Jefferson Davis as their president. Lincoln said that the secession was not legal and refused to surrender any federal territory in the south. Davis ordered Confederate troops to attack and capture Fort Sumter, a US Army garrison, beginning the American Civil War.

By this point, the northern states were fully industrialized, while the southern states were primarily agrarian, but for some reason the Confederacy wound up with all the best generals, and so the war lasted five years. Eventually, however, the Confederate General Robert E. Lee surrendered to Union General Ulysses S. Grant on April 9, 1865.

Just before the end of the war, the United States Congress passed the Thirteenth Amendment, which outlawed slavery. Southern states were required to ratify this amendment before rejoining the Union. Soon after, the Fourteenth Amendment was passed, guaranteeing citizenship to formerly enslaved persons, and in 1870 the Fifteenth Amendment, prohibiting states from denying voting rights based on race.

Open-Ended Question

Before the Civil War, people said "the United States are." After the Civil War, people began using the grammatically incorrect "the United States is." Why?

Music

Both sides used music to express their views and rally others to their cause. Much of this music is reminiscent of the folk song style of Stephen Foster, which was popular at the time.

Union Songs

Battle Hymn of the Republic

The Battle Cry of Freedom

Confederate Songs

I Wish I Was in Dixie

The Bonnie Blue Flag