What did the United States look like before the American Civil War? Discover it with this book for young readers.America in the years leading up to the Civil War was more like two countries than one. The North had an industrial economy and the South had a farming economy. By 1804, slavery had been outlawed in the North but the Southern economy was still wholly dependent upon the labor of enslaved workers. As the country grew, so did tensions between the two regions. Read all about the era that culminated in the greatest threat to our nation.ABOUT THE SERIES: The Civil War took place in America between April 1861 and April 1865. During the four-year struggle between the North and the South, approximately 10,000 battles were fought on land and sea, leaving 620,000 dead. As a result of the war, more than three million enslaved people gained their freedom. The four books in the "Exploring the Civil War" series examine the war's key people, places, and events, and its causes and consequences, making them the perfect tools to introduce children to one of the defining events in American history.