The American Civil War was fought between 1861 and 1865. A civil war is a war fought between different regions within a country. The American Civil War was fought between the North and the South. Shortly after the election of President Abraham Lincon, eleven Southern states seceded from the union. After being president for only six weeks, Abraham Lincoln declared these acts of Southern succession illegal. Lincoln then requested that Congress allow him to use 500,000 troops to help quell the threatening rebellion in the South. Huge sections of the South were destroyed in the process of the North attempting to regulate the South. The lands were destroyed along with the social structure and economy. In 1862, Lincoln began freeing slaves in the South. On January 1, 1863, Abraham Lincoln issued the Emancipation Proclamation. When the proclamation was issued it was clear that the war was now about slavery. The Emancipation Proclamation freed many, but not all, slaves. It wasn't until December 1865 that the Thirteenth Amendment was ratified. The Thirteenth Amendment states, “Neither slavery nor involuntary servitude, except as punishment for a crime of which the party shall have been duly convicted, shall exist within the United States, or in any place subject to the jurisdiction thereof.” (United States Constitution). When the slaves were freed, Southerners went into a frenzy because slaves were their main source of income. Hatred of the North led a small group to grow into one of the largest hate groups in American history. The Ku Klux Klan was first formed in the town of Pulaski, Tennessee in the year 1865. The Ku Klux Klan initially began as a fraternity group comprising six Confederate veterans and lat...... middle of paper. ..... The Encyclopedia of American Law. 2005. Enciclopedia.com. March 12, 2014.Goldberg, David J. “Exposing the Ku Klux Klan: The Northern Movement Against the KKK, 1920-1925.” Journal of American Historical Historyv15 n4 (Summer 1996): 32.History.Com Staff. "The Ku Klux Klan." History.com. A+E Networks, 2009. Web. 9 Mar. 2014. .PBS “The Rise of the Ku Klux Klan.” American experience. WGBH Educational Foundation, 1996. Web. 27 February 2014./general-article/grant-kkk/>.Seneil. "Social, Economic, and Political Changes After the Civil War." Triond, 16 September 2009. Web. 12 March 2014. Constitution of the United States. Amendment XIII (modified 1865).