South Carolina and other States Secede

The secession of the Southern states


After the election of Abraham Lincoln in 1860, states began to secede from the Union.  The first to do so was South Carolina.  The Ordinance of Secession was passed unanimously and South Carolina officially seceded. By February sixth of 1861, six more stats had seceded.  These states were Mississippi, Florida, Alabama, Georgia, Louisiana, and Texas.  In an attempt to hold the Union together, Congress tried to compromise with the seceding states.  Their attempts were ignored and the Confederate States of America formed with Jefferson Davis as the president.  They drafted a constitution which was basically the same as the American Constitution except for the fact that it guaranteed slavery, banned protective tariffs, limited the presidency to a single six-year term, and declared that each state was independent.

The secession marked the ended of the United States of America and its split into two separate countries.  It showed how far the South was willing to go to retain their ways of life.

Fort Sumter Falls

Fort Sumter


In April of 1861, Abraham Lincoln announced that he intended to resupply Fort Sumter in South Carolina.  Because the South saw itself as a new sovereign nation, "foreign" troops in one of it most vital harbors would seem unacceptable.  In an attempt to peacefully capture Fort Sumter before the supply ships arrived, Jefferson Davis, president of the Confederate States, had a letter delivered to major Robert Anderson by April 12, 1861.  After the established time of surrender passed, Confederate forces opened fire on Fort Sumter.  After thirty-three hours of bombardment, Major Anderson and his men surrendered.

The attack on Fort Sumter was the first attack to occur during the Civil War.  The attack marked the beginning of the Civil War in the United States.

Election of 1860

The candidates in the election of 1860


In 1860, the Democratic party split over who should be the candidate for the election.  The Southern Democrats chose the current vice president, John C. Breckenridge.  Other people, such as former Whigs, created another political party known as the Constitutional Union Party, and chose John Bell as their candidate.  Realizing that they had no hope of winning any votes in the South, the Republicans decided to find someone they believed would sweep through the North and gain a large number of votes.  For this purpose, they chose Abraham Lincoln, who had become popular in the North due to the Lincoln-Douglas debates.  In the end, the democratic votes were split between Douglas and Breckenridge, allowing Lincoln to win the election without Southern support.

After Lincoln was elected, many Southerners believed their very way of life was in risk.  Southern states began to secede after Lincoln was elected.

John Brown's Raid on Harper's Ferry

Abolitionist John Brown


John Brown was an extreme abolitionist who formulated a plan to incite a slave rebellion.  He planned to do this by capturing the federal arsenal at Harper's Ferry in Virginia.  After capturing the arsenal, he was going to arm the slaves in the nearby area, then spread the revolt across the U.S., thus purging slavery from America.  On the night of October 16, 1859, John Brown, along with eighteen of his followers, captured the arsenal.  Soon after seizing the arsenal, a contingent of U.S. Marines were brought from Washington D.C. to Harper's Ferry.  Only 36 hours after he captures the arsenal, John Brown was captured and tried by a Virginia court.  He was hanged on December second.

John Brown's raid resulted in a split opinion from the North and South.  While the North viewed John Brown as a hero, the South viewed it as an example of the extent to which the North would go to eliminate slavery, even if it meant bloodshed.

Kansas's Lecompton Constitution

Political cartoon concerning the Lecompton Constitution


In response to conflicts between pro-slavery and anti-slavery forces in Bleeding Kansas, President Buchanan urged the Kansas territory to apply for statehood.  In response to Buchanan's request, pro-slavery officials organized an election for delegates to participate in a constitutional convention.  However, anti-slavery advocates refused to participate, claiming the election was rigged.  Because the ant-slavery supporters didn't participate in the convention, the constitution drafted in the town of Lecompton (after which the constitution is named) legalized slavery.  After the constitution was established, each side held a vote on the new constitution.  President Buchanan accepted the pro-slavery vote and requested that Congress admit Kansas as a slave state.  After extreme political debate, a deal was eventually made to have a second popular vote in Kansas, which ruled in the favor of the pro-slavery supporters.  After several years of delay, Kansas finally became a state in 1861.

The Lecompton Constitution demonstrated the continued divide that was slowly pulling the United States apart at the Northern-Southern seam.  It caused troubles in the state of Kansas as well in the political battleground in Washington D.C.

Dred Scott Decision

Dred Scott

Dred Scott was an enslaved African whose master had taken him into free territory before returning with him to Missouri.  Dred Scott, with the assistance of abolitionists, sued for his freedom, claiming that since he had spent time in a free state, he was free.  The case ended up proceeding all the was to the Supreme Court.  On March 6, 1857, the verdict was declared by Chief Justice Roger B. Taney.  He stated that because African American's were not citizens, they did not have the right to utilize the court system to sue someone.

The Dred Scott Case, by its indirect verdict, ended up causing more trouble because the verdict caused political arguments. It did this by stating that the federal government did not have the right to deny the ability to have slavery in the new western territories.

Uncle Tom's Cabin

A scene from Harriet Beecher Stowe's Uncle Tom's Cabin


Uncle Tom's Cabin became one of the most purchased book in its century, second only to the Bible.  It sold 300,000 copies in its first year of print.  Originally running as a serial in an anti-slavery newspaper, Harriet Beecher Stow, the author, eventually published it in the form of a book.  The book was extremely, especially in the South.  In fact,  Southerners tried, unsuccessfully, to have the book banned, claiming that it falsely portrayed slavery.  It had such a massive impact on the opinion of the public that some historians have gone so far as to name it as one of the causes of the Civil War.

Uncle Tom's Cabin greatly influenced public opinion on slavery.  It allowed anyone with the ability to read it to what happened to enslaved Africans.  It added fuel to the anti-slavery supporter's fire.