The American Civil War was a war lasting from 1861 to 1865 between the Northern states and the Southern states of the United States of America. The main issue contributing to the outbreak of war was states' fights: whether or not individual state governments had the right to make their own decisions about their own matters. The South feared that the U.S. government would take too much control over state governments, listening to the more powerful Northern states and then forcing changes that would be harmful to the Southern states' economies and freedoms. They were afraid of this control because it reminded them of the British king's rule, which they had escaped 100 years ago. When Abraham Lincoln (1809—1865), who was very anti-states' rights, was elected president in late 1860 by an election that was swung by Northern states' votes, the Southern states all left the Union and formed a new government called the Confederate States of America. The North tried to force the South to join the Union again, declaring war on the Southern states. After the war began, Lincoln made slavery one of the turning points of the fight. There were many slaves in the United States, both in the North and the South, but the citizens of the Southern states greatly depended on slaves to work on their large plantations, which were the basis of the South's economy. Over the next four years, much of the South's economy, cities and countryside were destroyed, until finally the South surrendered to the North. Since the war, however, the same basic question of states' rights has continued to trouble American society.

美國南北戰(zhàn)爭是在1861年到1865年之間，發(fā)生在美國北方聯(lián)邦政府與南部同盟政府之間長達(dá)四年之久的內(nèi)戰(zhàn)。美國獨(dú)立戰(zhàn)爭后，南方和北方逐漸形成完全不同的社會(huì)政治經(jīng)濟(jì)制度。南方以種植園為其主要經(jīng)濟(jì)形式，而種植園中的主要?jiǎng)趧?dòng)力是種植園主的黑人奴隸;北方的主要經(jīng)濟(jì)形式則是大工業(yè)生產(chǎn)，工廠中的主要?jiǎng)趧?dòng)力是自由勞工。到19世紀(jì)60年代，南北兩方經(jīng)濟(jì)利益的沖突集中表現(xiàn)在究竟是把自由勞工制還是蓄奴制引入美國擴(kuò)張中的西部領(lǐng)土上去。1860年亞伯拉罕·林肯當(dāng)選總統(tǒng)，在許多南方的白人農(nóng)場主看來，這是一個(gè)長期的和不可挽回的政治失敗，這個(gè)失敗將導(dǎo)致南方蓄奴制度的瓦解和社會(huì)動(dòng)亂。1861年，南部11州紛紛脫離聯(lián)邦政府，并宣布成立“南部聯(lián)盟”，另立政府。1861年4月12日，南方軍隊(duì)向聯(lián)邦設(shè)在南卡羅來納州的薩姆特要塞開火，美國內(nèi)戰(zhàn)爆發(fā)。1865年4月9日，南軍部隊(duì)陷入北方軍隊(duì)的重圍之中，被迫投降，美國內(nèi)戰(zhàn)終止，美國恢復(fù)統(tǒng)一。北方在戰(zhàn)爭中的勝利確立了大資產(chǎn)階級(jí)在全國的統(tǒng)治地位。內(nèi)戰(zhàn)取消了奴隸制，加速了美國經(jīng)濟(jì)的發(fā)展。