Ever since the formation of the United States of America, the North and the South followed different paths. By the mid 1800s, the differences between the two regions were so pronounced that many observers felt like the country was home to two distinct cultures. The North was becoming more and more industrial and dedicated to free labor and immigration. Many Northerners committed themselves to chasing the American dream of the poor man working hard, making a home for himself, and perhaps even doing great things. Slavery was not common and even banned in some states, and a growing abolitionist movement frequently demanded freedom for all people. The North was also more inclined to support a strong federal government. The South could not have been more different. Its agricultural economy was founded on cotton and slave labor. Southerners tended to favor a less-powerful federal government that allowed more room for states to make their own rules, especially when it came to slavery. Many in the South resented the North and viewed their northern neighbors as trying to destroy their Southern culture with industrial progress and abolitionism. These two contrasting cultures engaged in some major conflicts during the first half of the 1800s, especially over the expansion of slavery into the western territories. Many in the North believed that slavery should be contained to its current boundaries. They saw the West as a place for small farmers who worked the land themselves and purchased goods made in the North. Southerners, on the other hand, were eying the expansive western lands with the notion of expanding their plantations and, of course, bringing their slaves with them. A series of compromises kept the situation in a tentative balance until 1860. Election UpsetsThen came the 1860 presidential election. Republican candidate Abraham Lincoln ran on a platform that called for the prohibition of slavery's expansion in the West. Southerners watched nervously; they saw the Republicans as a bunch of abolitionists who wanted to take away their rights and their slaves. A few impassioned Southerners called 'Fire-eaters' vigorously called for Southern secession if Lincoln won the election, and many of their neighbors agreed. Lincoln did win, and the South was faced with a choice: remain in the Union with a Republican president or take decisive action and secede. Eleven States LeaveAs soon as the election returns were in, South Carolina's governor and legislature called for a secession convention, which convened on December 17, 1860. It didn't take long for the delegates to decide what to do. On December 20, they voted unanimously to leave the Union. Their declaration of secession reads in part: 'We, the people of the State of South Carolina, in convention assembled, do declare and ordain that... the union now subsisting between South Carolina and other States, under the name of the 'United States of America,' is hereby dissolved.' Other states soon followed South Carolina. Mississippi, Florida, Alabama, Georgia, Louisiana, and Texas called their own conventions and issued their own declarations of secession by February 1, 1861. On February 4, delegates from the seceded states met in Montgomery, Alabama, to set up their new government and officially organize the Confederate States of America. Still more states, especially those with slave-based economies, watched closely to see how the U.S. would respond to the newly established Confederacy. On April 12, 1861, South Carolina troops opened fire on Fort Sumter in Charleston after the U.S. commander there refused to surrender. Southern secession had turned violent, and President Lincoln called for troops to put down the rebellion. Virginia, Arkansas, North Carolina, and Tennessee, ignoring the fact that the South had fired first, seceded in protest against Northern aggression. The Confederacy of eleven states was now complete. Following the election of Abraham Lincoln on an anti-slavery platform, the major slave-holding states declared their secession from the United States one after another. They formed the Confederate States of America (commonly called the Confederacy) under their own president Jefferson Davis. Below is a list of the 11 seceding states during the American Civil War, along with the date of secession and when they were readmitted.
NOTE: Four other slave states?Delaware, Maryland, Kentucky, and Missouri?remained in the Union. The latter two were actually represented on the Confederate flag, which, like the Stars and Stripes, featured a star for every state. 1. Date of readmission to representation in U.S. House of Representatives. 2. Second readmission date. First date was July 21, 1868, but the representatives were unseated March 5, 1869. Although more than a century of states' rights debates have muddied the waters, the reasons for secession are actually quite clear. All eleven states declared slavery as one of the primary motivators for their secession; they believed that their livelihoods were tied up with the institution of slavery, and that they could no longer be part of a country that might force them to abandon slavery. The declarations of secession all contain similar messages. Of all of the many rights they felt the federal government might strip away from them, slavery was the biggest. But, the situation is a bit more complicated in terms of why they finally seceded when they did. Let's take the example of Georgia. The secessionists there wrote: "The people of Georgia having dissolved their political connection with the Government of the United States of America, present to their confederates and the world the causes which have led to the separation. For the last ten years we have had numerous and serious causes of complaint against our non-slave-holding confederate States with reference to the subject of African slavery. They have endeavored to weaken our security, to disturb our domestic peace and tranquility, and persistently refused to comply with their express constitutional obligations to us in reference to that property, and by the use of their power in the Federal Government have striven to deprive us of an equal enjoyment of the common Territories of the Republic... ...While the subordination and the political and social inequality of the African race was fully conceded by all, it was plainly apparent that slavery would soon disappear from what are now the non-slave-holding States of the original thirteen... ...For forty years this question has been considered and debated in the halls of Congress, before the people, by the press, and before the tribunals of justice. The majority of the people of the North in 1860 decided it in their own favor. We refuse to submit to that judgment, and in vindication of our refusal we offer the Constitution of our country and point to the total absence of any express power to exclude us." Georgia's declaration elaborates a description of the history of slavery and economy in the century before their secede. But, in terms of timing, their issues are specific. What exactly are they referring to with their "serious causes of complaint?" Pressure from above and belowIn essence, it all comes down to the abolitionist movement. In the South, there were numerous uprisings against slavery by black people. This was a cause of great concern to slaveholders, especially in states where the slave population was a near-majority (or was a majority). It was a source of fear and anxiety, and one that they kept in check through restrictive laws and the threat of military force. These laws were opposed by many groups, especially by free black people living beyond the immediate influence of slaveholders. Northern abolitionists actively opposed these laws meant to keep the enslaved population oppressed. They refused to return escaped slaves or report on them. They helped more people escape slavery. They opposed attempts to expand slavery or support it at a federal level. They generated a great deal of anger and paranoia among slaveholders that exploded when abolitionist John Brown actively armed and incited an uprising in Harper's Ferry, Virginia. People across the South feared that Northerners would incite violence and terror to get rid of slavery in their states. They refused to even put the Republican candidate Abraham Lincoln on their ballots. But, despite their effort to keep him out of the White House, Lincoln prevailed on the back of overwhelming Northern support. The Southern states claimed that their will had been entirely subverted, and that the system favored northern extremists who influenced the government. Their answer to their claim was to create their own government. The confederate government established a government in Richmond, just 100 miles from the Capitol in D.C., with their own Confederate constitution. There were initial hopes that the CSA could be peacefully reintegrated back into the USA. But, the cultivated fear of northern agitation led the Confederate army to be wary of U.S. activities. When the USA sent troops to secure the federal territory of Fort Sumter, the confederates demanded that the army retreat. After a lengthy standoff, the Confederates attacked the fort. This act of aggression ended hopes of a peaceful resolution and led to the Civil War. Territorial Expansion The Declaration of Sentiments
The Impending Crisis: America Before the Civil War, 1848-1861 by David M. Potter, Revised Edition (Harper Collins, 2011) The Library of Congress
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