The American Civil War
Slavery is ended by four years of war that kill three quarters of a million people.
- When
- —
- Duration
- 4 years
- Known to
- ± 1 year
- Era
- Industrial, Holocene
Southern states secede over slavery following Lincoln's election, and the war from 1861 to 1865 becomes the first industrialised conflict — railways, telegraph, ironclads, rifled weapons, trench lines and mass casualties from disease. The Emancipation Proclamation of 1863 redefines the war's purpose, and the Thirteenth Amendment abolishes slavery. Reconstruction is abandoned within a decade, and legal segregation follows for another ninety years.