This is meant for beginners in English, could you read rather slowly and clearly please? thanks a lot.
Between the years 1861-1865, America fought the bloodiest war in its history. The northern states (Yankees) fought against the southern states (rebels). The southern states left the union because they were controlled by wealthy plantation owners who owned slaves brought by force under terrible conditions from Africa. Many people tried to end slavery peacefully, but to no avail. The war was fought in eleven southern states in many bloody battles. Many more died in POW camps and from disease. The North finally invaded deeply into the South and occupied all of it, winning the Civil War after four years. Slaves were declared free and rejoiced, but at the end in a terrible tragedy, President Abraham Lincoln was assassinated. After the war for nearly one hundred years, the South was a backward, poverty-stricken part of the country with much racial conflict.
I made a second extra slow version.