No longer United States, but divided states.

The Framers struggled with balancing states' rights and the federal government's power as they crafted the Constitution. They also wrestled with the question of slavery.

They assumed (wrongly) that slavery would die out on its own. But for 75 years after the Constitution's ratification, slavery grew and spread into new territories, the exact opposite of what they'd expected.

Then came the Dred Scott case. Supreme Court Chief Justice Taney thought he could solve the slavery question once and for all from his bench.

But he couldn't.

It would take the Civil War to do that.

 The Civil War: A Nation Divided covers numerous educational standards across several subject areas including Social Studies and Language Arts for grades 6-12+. To find which standards it covers specific to your grade, subject area, and which standards your district follows, use our Standards Alignment tool.