State of Arkansas.

This land was part of the land that purchased from France 1803. A territory in 1819, statehood in 1836 as the 25th state. President Lincoln was not willing to protect slavery. The southern people felt their life style was threatened. Afraid of Lincoln's next move, they seceded from the United States May 6, 1861.   America had gone into Civil War.
What caused the Civil War? We can learn several reasons. But as background, it is impossible to say slavery was not the reason.

As early as 1619 slaves were freighted into this land by Dutch ships as a cargo without names. This was the root of U.S. slavery.  In the early 19 century, slaves were considered an economic minus. Incredibly, some white people of the slave states felt that the feeding and care of slaves was a heavy burden.

The demand for cotton increased in England and Europe. This stimulated the market for free slave labor. When the U.S. was born, the southern colonies were not satisfied with the Constitution's regulation of slavery. Thus they were inflamed to steer toward rebellion for both economical reason and emotional reasons.

Civil war was started when South Carolina attacked Fort Sumter in Charlestown Harbor. It ended April 1865 when General Robert E. Lee surrendered to General Ulysses S. Grant at Appomattox, Virginia. The United State lost 359,000 people and Southern States lost 248,000 people. Too much sacrifice and tragedy created ill feelings  between both sides that lasted more than one century.

Pictured is a historic collection displayed at a restaurant. I did not want to see but is is a documented fact of history.(DC-2)

The eastern Mississippi River area is a region of cotton farms that related directly and indirectly with the Civil War. This farm area goes on for miles and miles. From this point on, we only heard the dialect of the Southern and Southeastern United States.