Before the American Civil war, the nation was divided into 2 parts: the South and the North. Their cultures were varied by many aspects of life. For example, in the North coloured people were not seen as only slaves, but also as people, at least in the other half of the 19th century. In the South, the economy relied heavily on slave labour, whilst in the North, there were lots of factories and the population was much bigger than in the South. We could say that the North was more liberal and diverse than the South. The main cause of the war were conflicts over slavery and when Lincoln defended the coloured people and wanted to give them rights, then the South was outraged by that and thus the war has sparked. The coloured people were still not obliged to fight since the whites did not believe that they have what it takes to be a soldier. This was the case for the North since in the South, the slaves were treated far worse. Though, in the war, the first coloured regiment became known as the 54th Massachusetts Volunteer Infantry Regiment. At first, they were not even allowed to have guns, but later in the war, they fought for the people of America and had a huge impact on creating more coloured regiments. As you know, the North had won the war, but with lots of casualties, over 700,000 people had died, most of them from diseases. The most important outcome was that this marked the start of a new era called the Reconstruction era, which was important for the coloured and also the whites.
