re: Tennessee lawmakers punish Memphis for removing Confederate statues

The American Civil War was fought primarily between the industrialized northern states and the predominately agrarian southern states. In between these lay the Border States. This lesson will reveal which states were included in the Border States and the significance of each to the war effort.

Border States in the American Civil War
The American Civil War is often viewed entirely as the North versus the South, but sandwiched in between these two battling areas were the Border States. The Border States included Delaware, Maryland, Kentucky, and Missouri. By mid-war, West Virginia was added to the list.

Border States

However, the criteria for being a Border State was not simply geographic. They also had a unique cultural identity. Slaveholding was legal in the Border States, and like the South, they didn't support Lincoln in the 1860 election. However, his win was not an impetus for secession here because the Border States also held on to a firm belief in a strong federal union.

Compromises for Union Loyalty
The Border States were vital to the success of the Union. Containing significant deposits of mineral resources, they were also major agricultural areas producing both livestock and grain. Additionally, these states contained transportation and communication lines that were vital to the war.

President Lincoln actively worked to maintain the best relationship with these areas to ensure he never lost these resources. However, their cultural ideologies created some significant dividing lines that had to be carefully balanced, including their ideas on slavery.

Lincoln unsuccessfully tried to convince the Border States to be the leaders in voluntary and gradual emancipation in the first years of the war. He pointed out that being the leaders meant they could have time to acclimate their economies to the loss of the slave labor. He offered them financial compensation for the loss of their slaves. Nothing worked. This failure to gain emancipation in the Border States was one of the major reasons he felt it necessary to draft the Emancipation Proclamation.

The more you know...