e housing,and food. However, the southerners were deeply rooted intheir institution of slavery and were prepared to go to warover their feelings. During this war the battle fields weretransformed into shambles where during the duration of thewar 634,703 union soldiers were killed or wounded, and335,524 confederate soldiers were killed or wounded. Indeedthis was the second most intense war second to World War II.In the civil war 3,846 soldiers from both the union army andthe confederate army were killed per month of fighting. Thisclearly shows the intensity of the battle and the strongwill which drove both sides to continue fighting in the faceof such catastrophe. The financial burden endured by bothsides was astronomical for the time period. The union forcespent a combined 3.2 billion dollars which in terms ofcurrent currency values is 27.3 billion dollars. Theconfederacy spent two billion or 17.1 billion dollars. Thisis the price both sides were willing to pay in the name ofslavery. The North and South went to war over the issue ofslavery and endured a great expense in terms of human lives,and money. They could however have followed the example ofBritain, Sweden, and Holland and simply signed away theinstitution of slavery and saved thousands of lives, andbillions in dollars. However, the south was too deeplyrooted in the institution of slavery, and when theEmancipation Proclamation came which freed the slaves theystill treated them as they did before, often outside of thelegal limits. Even after the 14th amendment which legallymade people of color American citizens, there were strongracial and prejudicial feelings which ran rampant in thesouth, for example the KKK, and Jim Crow Laws, and literacytests for the right to vote. African Americans endured thesehardships for years to come, indeed until the civil rightsmovement in the 20th century....
