In April 1861, the United States was approaching a breaking point. Seven Southern states had already announced that they were leaving the country, a separate government had been established, and President Abraham Lincoln was refusing to accept the breakup of the Union. In Charleston Harbor, South Carolina, a small group of US soldiers was occupying a federal fort claimed by the new Confederate government. What happened there would turn a political crisis into a war.
To understand Fort Sumter, it is important to understand the dispute that had been tearing the United States apart for decades: slavery.
