Abraham Lincoln's Role In The Civil War

During the time period of realism, we were undergoing the Civil War. The Civil War was between the North and the South, determining how our nation would be run. Dr. James McPherson explains:
The war resolved two fundamental questions left unresolved by the revolution: whether the United States was to be a dissolvable confederation of sovereign states or an indivisible nation with a sovereign national government; and whether this nation, born of a declaration that all men were created with an equal right to liberty, would continue to exist as the largest slaveholding country in the world. The North and South were fighting to see how the United States was going to be ruled. Robert E. Lee, had been the Confederate General for the South.
Ulysses S. Grant, former President of the United States, had been the Union General for the North. According to an article on Ebscohost, “After four bloody years and the death of more than 750,000 soldiers on both sides, Lee's defeat all but ends the attempt of 11 Southern states to secede from the Union-America's Civil War… Most of the war's battles were fought in the South, causing much of the devastation” (Brown). The war was intense. The article later continues to explains that the war was to end slavery and so, the 13th amendment was made strictly to abolish slavery. The Ebscohost article tells that Grant had wrote the terms to surrender. Lee agreed and allowed thousands of his soldiers to go home (Brown). The President to have been present during some of this time period and for the Civil War, was Abraham Lincoln.
Lincoln started off on the bottom and climbed his way to the top. In 1860, Lincoln became the 16th President of the United States. He was never really a huge people person until he got the attention of many with his very well known, two minute speech in the Gettysburg Address. He tried to get the North to agree on the “new birth of freedom”. After his term was up, he ran again for President, thinking he would lose, he won. He wanted to treat everyone equal so he put his best foot forward and sacrificed lives to end slavery
(Harold). The next President to run during the realism time period was Andrew Johnson. He was lucky enough to inherit the issue of the Reconstruction. Johnson was the first President to get impeached. It was a legal way to get rid of the President (Chaddock). He was President from 1865 to 1869. The 18th President after Johnson had been impeached was Ulysses S. Grant. His presidency had success. Being President from 1869-1877 (Gordon). The period during realism went through ten different Presidents, ending with Theodore Roosevelt. Which is ironic since he did love E. A. Robinson’s work. Technology was starting to advance at this point.
One of the biggest inventions during the beginning of the realism time period was explosive dynamite (Columbia Electronic Encyclopedia). A huge invention during this time period was the famous soft drink, Coca Cola. Referring to an article on the website livescience, it is posted that “Coca-Cola was first created in 1886 by Atlanta pharmacist John Pemberton” the article later goes on to explain “Until 1903, the world-famous soft drink contained a significant dose of cocaine” (Palermo). If cocaine was in soft drinks now, it would be insane. Yet, back then, cocaine was not declared illegal in the United States until 1914, which happens to be a few years after the time period of realism (Palermo). The typewriter was invented in this time period in 1868 by Christopher Scholes. This was very beneficial for this time, since this was the latest technological advance for writing
(Bellis). Life during this era was not great. With slavery beginning to be abolished; child labor laws are prevalent. Children barely attended school because they were too busy working. Some of the jobs for them were to work on cotton mills, worked in factories, shucked oysters, peeled shrimp, and delivered newspapers. They worked as young as four or five years old and would have to work ten to twelve hour days. The children were not safe working with machines on cotton mills. They had to stand on boxes just to reach the machines. It was inhumane. In 1875, people began to reform and expressed their hatred toward their children working. Many laws were made for children of a certain age to not work but, they all failed at the time. Alabama then successfully passes a law banning children under fourteen to work in a factory. The United States founded the National Child Labor Committee in 1904 and eventually, children were omitted from working (Reef). The dress during this era was a lot different than it is today. Ladies wore big dresses while men wore tailcoats and trousers. The male outfits were suitable for horseback riding at any time. Women’s hair was typically long and curled, perched up in a hat or a bonnet. Umbrellas were also the fashion. Women would carry umbrellas so their fair skin did not get burned. Men had short curls and long sideburns. Outfits were made to be formal and simplistic (Lad).