 Today, we'll be focusing on the significance of the American Civil War. The Civil War represents a very dramatic turning point in the history of the United States. And we'll be looking at four reasons today why the war is such a significant turning point in the nation's history. In a sense, the nation that enters the war in 1861 is fundamentally altered by the conflict, and in some ways bears very little resemblance to the nation that ends the war in 1865. So we'll be looking at four of these reasons why the war has such a transformative effect on the nation, including ending slavery, leading to a significant decline of the southern economy, changing the relationship between the states and the federal government, and ultimately creating very broad psychological impacts both in the north and in the south that last for generations. That far, the most visible and the meaningful result of the war is that slavery comes to an end. Slavery, which had been an institution that had largely defined the United States since the founding of the country in 1787 with the creation of the US Constitution, and certainly slavery had been an important part of colonial America, stretching well back into the 17th century. Well, with the end of slavery, nearly four million men, women, and children gained their freedom, and no longer are they being forced to work for others in conditions that are not of their choosing. They have now the ability to live where they wanted to, to work where they wanted to, to worship in churches of their own choosing, to marry and have families with people that they selected, and as a result, it's a very fundamental change in the lives of millions of African Americans, many of whom had grown up under conditions of bondage, with no control of their life whatsoever. Well, African Americans, of course, embrace the new freedoms that they gain at the end of the war, particularly once the 13th Amendment is passed, which formally bans slavery in the United States. But in a sense, African Americans wanted more than just basic freedoms. They wanted the fruits of freedoms. And as a result, African Americans demand social, political, and economic opportunities that had been denied to them while they were enslaved. And certainly for many African Americans, political participation was one of the most fundamental rights that they felt were as important to them in the United States. And with the passage of the 15th Amendment, African American men gained the right to vote, again, for the first time it was part of federal law that African American men were allowed to vote. And so many do, and many do get involved in politics. But the result, that within a very short period after the war ends, African Americans are being elected to government at the local, state, and national level. Here we have illustration of the first group of African Americans to be elected into the U.S. Congress following the war. And this was a dramatic change, because this was the first time that African Americans, formerly enslaved men in some cases, were able to join the U.S. government and actually make decisions about their communities and make decisions about their states and help shape federal policy about various issues. So certainly this was one of those dramatic, dramatic impacts of the war that has very long-lasting significance within the United States. In addition to African American slaves getting their freedom during the war, the war also leads to a significant economic decline within the American South. The war, of course, the destruction of the war utterly devastates many southern cities, including cities like Charleston, South Carolina, cities like Richmond, Virginia, and they're left essentially in shells at the end of the war. But if we were to look, for instance, on the southern country side, many plantations are also destroyed. Equipment supplies and other things belonging to plantation owners are confiscated by the Union Army, and of course slaves are free. And as a result, this leads to a significant decline in economic fortunes of the South. Slaves by far represent the largest economic investment within the South, and slaves represented something like $2.7 billion worth of value prior to the war. And once the 13th Amendment is passed and slavery is formally ended, this $2.7 billion just disappears from the southern economy. And modern terms, this would be almost $6 trillion. The only possible way to compare it would be as if the stock market in the United States just vanished, and all the billions and billions of dollars that were invested in stocks by Americans just vaporized and were gone. Well, this is what happens in the South. Families that have been investing in slaves for generation after generation, all that money disappears. And as a result, in some cases, you have formerly rich families who are left essentially bankrupt after the war, because all their money had been invested in slaves. And now those slaves are free people, and they no longer have to work for their former masters anymore. Well, in addition to this loss due to the end of slavery, Southerners suffer other economic losses. Nearly a third of the men in the South are killed. And these are both young men and old men. Well, for the young men, this is important because, of course, there are fewer people after the war to help rebuild the South. There are fewer people to work, fewer people to do things that are necessary to rebuild the economy. Those who do survive the war, of course, are, in many cases, impoverished because of the slaves being freed. They no longer have those investments. Many of their plantations are destroyed. Many of their homes are destroyed. If there are city dwellers, there are small factories, in some cases, are gone. And so as a result of the war, the South is a much poorer region than it had been. The South had been really the wealthiest region within the United States for much of the 19th century. But after the war, the South is an impoverished region. And it takes generations for the South to begin to recover economically from the conflict. A third change is the relationship, again, between the states and the federal government. During the war, Southern congressmen and senators left. And the Southern states seceded. And as a result, Congress was completely occupied by Northern and Western senators and representatives from places like New York, Pennsylvania, Ohio, Indiana, Illinois, et cetera. And as a result, these Northern and Western congressmen passed laws that were beneficial to the North and the South, including things like the Transcontinental Railroad Act, the Homestead Act, which encouraged Western settlement, and other various laws that benefited Northern manufacturers and farmers, as opposed to Southern farmers and plantation owners. So of course, these are acts that have a significant impact in the post-war years. Because the Congress remains under the control of Northerners and Westerners until the end of the Reconstruction period in 1877. And so for nearly a generation is passing legislation that benefits the North and West largely to the exclusion of the South. Well in another way, this relationship between the states and the federal government is very much changed by the war because we go from thinking of the United States as many. In other words, the United States are doing this. Two, the United States is one single entity. The United States is doing something. And this is a very important shift in how people thought of the United States. Before the war, we thought of the United States as a union of states, states that were fairly powerful. And essentially the federal government was no more powerful than any of the individual states and only functioned because of the agreement of all the states. Well after the war, the federal government becomes a supreme body. In other words, the federal government has higher power, has more authority than the individual states. And so as a result, it really changes how people think of the US government. Of course, the war also leads to the expansion of the US government. As the army and navy get bigger, as the US government has to do more to support Northern troops in the field and also help support the Northern economy. And as a result, after the war, the federal government is just much larger. There's a much bigger bureaucracy. There are more federal workers who are involved in making decisions. And the war just leads to the gradual expansion of the size of the federal government, which again has an impact on the influence of the federal government over state governments. States are reduced to being in a sense subservient to the federal government. They can't do something unless the federal government says that it's okay. And this went very much against what people within the United States felt before the war. The idea that states were more powerful than the federal government. And states if they chose to leave the union of states known as the United States could. Well, the word self decides that you can't leave. You may try to leave, but the federal government is going to force you back in. And so this idea of the states being of equal power to the federal government with many, many rights is really destroyed by the war. And the war leaves the federal government in a much more powerful position than beforehand. The final area in which we see important changes is that the war generates a huge psychological impact. The war of course is a deadly event. Nearly one million men are killed or wounded during the conflict. So nearly a million casualties. And if we look at the civilian population, certainly there are large numbers of civilians also wounded and killed during the war. Again, that particularly in the South where most of the fighting takes place. And so this has a dramatic impact on the people who survived the war because they have friends and family and many, many direct relatives who are wounded or killed in this conflict. It's a total war. And again, it has a dramatic impact on both the civilian and the military who are involved in the conflict. In a sense, it's really hard to find a person who isn't in some way personally infected by this war. Well, the war generates a tremendous amount of hatred in the North and in the South and also between various groups such as whites and African Americans. In this illustration we have an example of the federal government supposedly standing kind of as a shield between angry whites and African Americans who are attempting sort of to defend themselves. And this is part of the problem is that many whites were angry about African Americans gaining their independence and felt as though that was not fair and it was not a good decision. And so in a sense, part of the process of rebuilding out the war was the federal government attempting to shield African Americans from violence inflicted on them by angry whites. The war of course leads, as I said, to a lot of hatred in the South, the creation of modern hate groups too including the Klu Klux Klan who were founded in the 1870s. And here we have an illustration of a couple of clansmen in their robes. So in a sense, the war generates a lot of hatred in the South. For the South, it's considered to be the lost cause of war that it thinks had just gone a little bit differently. The Southerners might have won. If a battle had just gone a little bit differently, then things might have been very different. For the North, many cases used as justification for harsh treatment against the South. Northerners speak of this as waving the bloody shirt. And in other words, reminding voters that the North had suffered during the war and the voters needed to keep electing candidates that would be harsh in punishing the South for their activities. So we have a lot of hatred generated by this conflict. Hatred that lasts many generations. Really in some cases doesn't even begin to fade out until the early to mid 20th century. And so as a result of these four reasons, the end of slavery, the decline of the South economically, the changing relationship between the states and the federal government. And finally, the broader psychological impact. For these reasons, we consider the American Civil War to be such a dramatic, dramatic turning point in the history of the United States.