More americans lost their lives in the civil war than in any other conflict. how did the united states arrive at a point at which the south seceded and some families were so fractured that brother fought brother? a complex series of events led to the civil war. the lessons in this unit are designed to students develop a foundation on which to understand the basic disagreements between north and south. through the investigation of primary source documents —photographs, census information and other archival documents—students gain an appreciation of everyday life in the north and south, changes occurring in the lives of ordinary americans, and some of the major social and economic issues of the years before the civil war. what differences existed between ordinary americans living in the north and those living in the south in the years before the civil war?