Captain Henry Wirz came to America from Switzerland in 1849. He settled in Louisiana and worked as a doctor to slaves on a plantation. At the beginning of the Civil War, he joined the Fourth Louisiana Infantry and fought for about a year before he was wounded and lost most of the use of his right arm. Since he could not fight, the army reassigned him to work at a couple of prisons and he eventually became emissary of Jefferson Davis to Europe. After a year in Europe, Wirz came back and was made commandant of the Andersonville Prison in Georgia. <br /><br />Andersonville was known for being a particularly brutal prison. Prisoners were not given enough food, and many prisoners died of starvation. Disease also ran rampant. In addition to these problems, gangs of “raiders' within the prison bullied and beat other prisoners for money and possessions. The Union Army arrived at Andersonville in May 1865 and they, as well as the public, were shocked by the atrocities of the prison and wanted to punish someone for these crimes. Wirz was made the scapegoat and arrested on May 6. <br /><br />His trial by a military commission began on August 23 and he was found guilty on October 24. He was hung at the Old Capitol Prison on November 10, 1865. Prisoners and other guards gave many differing accounts of Wirz's character. Some made him out to be a kind-hearted, compassionate man, and others made him seem evil. Wirz was calm and fearless at his hanging, maintaining his innocence of committing the atrocities at Andersonville until the end.

On a Monday morning at 3 a.m., a breach in the levee allowed rushing waters to flood New Orleans. Within two days, the breach had expanded to be at least an acre in width. The areas initially most affected by the waters were the Cyprus swamp and St. John's Bayou. However, the waters were continuing to flow into the city, and it was predicted that by the time the flood waters stopped rising, the entire city would be underwater. <br /> <br />The governor of Louisiana took immediate action and hired engineers who pledged to have the breach fixed within several days. Due to having an abundance of the resources need to fix the levee accessible to them, the projected time to be able to fix the levee was accurate. Many of the city's residents relocated for the summer out of fear of an epidemic breakout of illnesses due to the excess of mud.<br /><br />The only way to protect the city from experiencing such devastating effects was by constantly patrolling the levee, which spanned for miles above and below New Orleans. Every landowner was responsible for maintenance of the levee that bordered his land, often helped by slaves and free Blacks. The portions of the levee that did not border personal property and ran through New Orleans were maintained by the city at the public's expense. This breach occurred five miles upstream of New Orleans, a section that was not under care of the city. Catastrophic events, such as this one, that threatened the southern way of life, brought together Whites and Blacks to work towards preservation of their society.

In 1798, Georgia banned involvement in the Atlantic Slave trade, followed a decade later by a nationwide ban. The Constitution had required the ban when signed, and Congress put it into effect on January 1, 1808. As the Hon. Joshua Giddings announced in a speech to the House of Representatives, “the United States;pronounced the African slave trade to be piracy, and those who followed that vocation to be pirates worthy of death.' All captured Atlantic slave traders in the future would tried for their lives.<br /><br />The strong sentiment against the Atlantic trade was not as universal as people imagined. Many politicians in the South were unyielding in their attempts to reestablish the Atlantic routes. Fifty years later, a candidate for Mississippi office announced that the “the great want of the South is more Negroes, fresh from Africa,' and he was not alone in this idea. The development of an illegal slave trade started as soon as the law was enacted, and this black market continued for decades. However, the illicit trade was costly and dangerous, and the already flourishing domestic slave trade replaced the Atlantic trade to a large extent. The last known delivery of African slaves occurred in 1858 when the Wanderer smuggled 409 slaves from the Congo and Angola into Georgia, near St. Simons Island. The slavers responsible were not caught.

In the 1830s, the South was increasingly aware of the North's industrial dominance. Commercial conventions emerged as a way to close this gap. The first meetings focused on single, specific issues such as direct trade with Europe or railroad construction. Later, the conventions would address a wide range of economic concerns. <br /><br />In 1858, Montgomery, Alabama hosted the Southern Commercial Convention. Over 500 citizens, including committees of 3 delegates per state, attended to discuss issues such as African apprentice labor, European trade, and, most importantly, the reopening of the Atlantic slave trade. On the second day of the convention, speeches were heard from Richard Pryor of Virginia against the reopening, but William Yancey of Alabama spoke in favor. Yancey gave a lengthy, powerful speech during which he suggested secession as a future option for the South. <br /><br />This particular debate is indicative of the main change which had occurred in the conventions since their inception. Instead of making decisions for economic advancement, the Southern Commercial Convention was used to spout political beliefs, spreading ideas widely in a short period of time. Recognizing the political danger within the conventions, Northerners spoke out against them. The New York Times even published a strongly worded piece announcing that “it is high time that those [conventions] of the South end in the production of something better than speeches, resolutions, and reports.' Still, the conventions continued, providing a forum for Southern communication.

In early July, the spark of nullification struck Edgefield County and throughout the state of South Carolina. Citizens of the community met to discuss as the Charleston News and Courier put it: “A Memorial to Congress against the imposition of additional duties upon the importation of woolens.' Jesse Blocks was named Chair and F.H. Wardlaw Esq. was elected Secretary. Their statement was written in the July 14th paper of the News and Courier and therefore, spread to all those in the area who were literate. <br /><br />This memorandum deals specifically with the tariff that so aversely affected the South during this time. The South held a cotton monopoly at this time, and an import tax imposed on their trading partners worried many Southerners that their monopoly was in jeopardy. In debating this tariff, the committee alluded to their forefathers knowing looking to them as an example as to know “our duty, so we know it is our right.' They found the tariff to be “peculiarly unfavorable to us' and refused the “shallow idea of a system forced upon us under the imposing name of “American''. <br /><br />It is interesting to note that many of these excuses these South Carolinians are makings are the same most slaves would be thinking. That is “our right' and “peculiarly unfavorable to us' that is “forced upon us.' Nevertheless, these groups were unable to see the parallel, or simply chose to ignore it. This meeting sparked others throughout the Palmetto State including one in Cheraw on July 25th. Obviously, this issue would not go away and later on, when President Jackson permitted the “Tariff of Abominations', talk of nullification (voiding a law that is seen as unfavorable to a particular area) began to stir first in the Palmetto State. The road to nullification passes right through in Edgefield, South Carolina in 1827.

The expansion of slavery into Missouri had almost led to a Civil War in 1820, seven years later Northerners worst fears were confirmed with a report by Missouri leaders. The St. Louis Enquirer published an article that would soon be republished throughout the South trumpeting the success of tobacco crops in the newest slave state. The soil of Missouri was considered by planters of Maryland and Virginia to be “admirably adapted for the cultivation of tobacco and evidently must become a staple commodity of Missouri. That was evidenced by tobacco crops already having a “considerable display in our port'. <br /><br />This article certainly pushed the sectionalism already becoming apparent between the Northern and Southern states of America. The South could look at this new territory's prosperity with pride and ambition. Missouri stood as an example for all the land yet to be settled out west in North America. It justified the “peculiar institution', which abolitionists degraded with such venom, could produce such prosperous results for the slave owners and the nation's economy as a whole. For the North, it spread greater fear that slavery was not going to just die out like many had predicted. Tobacco may use up farmland quickly, but states like Missouri now provided thousands of acres to be settled and cultivated by young and idealistic slave owners in the South who could not find land in their native state. As long as cash crops like tobacco prospered in new territories, the demand for slavery would only increase, not decrease. This event's simple account of tobacco growth foreshadowed the impending struggle over territorial expansion that would occur from this point all the way up until the Civil War.

After receiving a petition by Baton Rouge citizens, the local government established a colored church and hired a black Methodist preacher, George Menard, to lead the church. Besides encouraging this and other black churches, townsmen even permitted blacks to attend white churches. Although the Black Code in Baton Rouge seemed to impress a harsh code of conduct, the authorities rarely enforced these statutes. Instead, there was more trust in this community, leading to a more peaceful region. <br /><br />One example of the different attitude Baton Rouge and Louisiana held toward slavery is found in newspapers. Consistently, the New Orleans Times-Picayune presented favorable articles about blacks and slaves. For instance, in covering the funeral of a former Savannah mayor, it reported more on the heartwarming response of slaves to his death than on the white response, or even the funeral itself. <br /><br />Historians recognize that this unique system was due to a variety of factors. The multiracial Creole society and the strong Catholic influences in Louisiana explain part of it. However, Baton Rouge also had a different sort of community. Because it was not a plantation area, slaves were more likely to belong in small numbers to individual families than to reside in large numbers. Maybe due to this, unlike many Southern areas, the white leaders of Baton Rouge did not fear the spread of antislavery sentiments through black churches, perhaps considering their own influence to be stronger.

On July 4th, 1828 construction began in Baltimore, Maryland to build one of the first railroad lines in the United States. It was a massive project proposal that took many months of negotiations between the Maryland State legislature and the Chesapeake Company. The Maryland Gazette, based in Annapolis Maryland, reported that the cost of the operation to be in the range of five hundred to seven hundred thousand dollars and expected to be completed in Maryland within a ten year time frame.<br />The railroad line began at the port of Baltimore and ended at what is today,Wheeling West Virginia. The Baltimore-Ohio line shortened the time and distance to transport goods from the West to the East. Before the creation of the line, goods would travel north on the Erie Canal and then southeastwards towards Maryland. This route was long and tedious. The Baltimore-Ohio Railroad was created with the intention in mind to cut the time traveled in half. The full line took about 25 years to complete and eventually, the railway did succeed at providing a faster more efficient route to transfer goods.

During the decades before the Civil War, Louisiana began using special tribunals to try slaves accused of violent crimes. State vs. Oscar is just one example of a case using such a tribunal, where Oscar, a slave, was on trial for the rape of a young white girl. Oscar was tried in a regular court, but his appeal went to a special tribunal. The tribunal upheld his guilty verdict, and he was subsequently executed. The tribunals were often fraught with errors and allowed prejudices to easily influence verdicts.<br /><br />The Louisiana tribunals were indicative of increasingly harsh treatment of slaves by the law. Vigilance committees became common as groups of citizens banded together to investigate and observe the actions of blacks. Though some government officials, such as Governor Wise of Virginia, tried to prevent such groups, it was to no avail. Meanwhile, citizens pressured police authorities to enact stronger rules. In South Carolina, the Lancaster Ledger reported a new ordinance “that it shall be the duty of all patrols to whip all slaves, who shall be found with improper permits'. A policeman's duty now included inflicting violent punishment.<br /> <br />In the wake of Nat Turner's rebellion, whites' suspicions and fears were not entirely unfounded. In Kentucky, a young Negro girl poisoned her master's family with arsenic under the promptings of her neighbor slaves. With such instances as these, it is not surprising that communities responded. However, regulations became increasingly unjust and violent, shocking many.

Following the success of a New York-Newfoundland telegraph line, philanthropist Cyrus Field convinced the governments of American and Great Britain to fund a transatlantic line. It would take 2,500 miles of cable to complete the job, and construction was interrupted often by errors. Cables snapped, ships wrecked, and money was running out. Meanwhile, the American South was watching the progress with anticipation. Newspapers were quick to report the many failures and setbacks of the line throughout the South in places from Louisiana to South Carolina to Mississippi. <br /><br />Eventually, the cable was laid properly, and the line succeeded. Public enthusiasm about its success was magnificent, and pieces of extra cable were even sold as souvenirs. President Buchanan and Queen Victoria exchanged the first message on August 16, 1858. Unfortunately, the cable stopped working four months later, but the precedent was set. For the first time, rapid inter-continental communication was possible. This would become extremely important as the North and South sought international aid and backing in the first months of the Civil War.