South Secession

By Lillian Summer Keller

In January, 1861, The South Seceded from the Union. Abraham Lincoln had been elected as President. He was a strong opponent of slavery. After calling a state convention, the delegates voted to remove the state of South Carolina from the Union. The secession of South Carolina was then followed by six more states, including Florida, Alabama, Georgia, Mississippi, Louisiana, and Texas. Eventually Eleven States formed the Confederate States of America. At a convention in Montgomery, Alabama, the seven seceding states created the Confederate Constitution. Jefferson Davis, was named the provisional President of the Confederacy, till elections could be held.

Who Seceded When

Mississippi- January 9, 1861

Florida- January 10, 1861

South Carolina- December 20, 1860

Alabama- January 11, 1861

Georgia- January 19, 1861

Louisiana- January 26, 1861

Texas- February 1, 1861

After Lincoln Called For Troops

Virginia- April 17, 1861

Arkansas- May 6 1861

North Carolina- May 20, 1861

Tennessee- June 8, 1861

Reasons Why

The seeds of secession had been sown early in American history; quite literally with the fundamental differences in agriculture and resultant adoption of slavery in the South. From early days, the thirteen states had grown up separately, and each had their own culture and beliefs, which were often incompatible with those held in other states. The geographical and cultural differences between north and south would manifest themselves at regular and alarming intervals throughout the hundred years following the drafting of the constitution. Tension reached a peak during the 1850s, over the right to hold slaves in new territories. The Wilmot Proviso of 1846, roused bitter hostilities, and vehement debate turned to physical violence during the period of 'Bleeding Kansas'. The election of Lincoln, who the South perceived to be an abolitionist, in 1860 was the final straw, and the secession of seven Southern states followed soon after.

Reasons Why

States right’s was another cause of tension between the two.

 Secession was based on the idea of state rights (or "states rights," a variant that came into use after the Civil War). This

exalted the powers of the individual states as opposed to those of the Federal government. It generally rested on the theory of state sovereignty-- that in the United States the ultimate source of political authority lay in the separate states. Associated with the principle of state rights was a sense of state loyalty that could prevail over a feeling of national patriotism. Before the war, the principle found expression in different ways at different times, in the North as well as in the South. During the war it reappeared in the Confederacy.        HAMILTONIANS AND JEFFERSONIANS. The Constitution could be interpreted in opposite ways.

Slavery

Close to two million slaves were brought to the American South from Africa and the West Indies during the centuries of the Atlantic slave trade.

In the antebellum South, slavery provided the economic foundation that supported the dominant planter ruling class.

Slaves have served in capacities as diverse as concubines, warriors, servants, craft workers, and tutors. In the Americas, however, slavery emerged as a system of forced labor designed for the production of staple crops. Depending on location, these crops included sugar, tobacco, coffee, and cotton; in the southern United States, by far the most important staples were tobacco and cotton.

of forced labor designed for the production of staple crops. Depending on location, these crops included sugar, tobacco, coffee, and cotton; in the southern United States, by far the most important staples were tobacco and cotton.

Pictures

Slavery

Slaves have served in capacities as diverse as concubines, warriors, servants, craft workers, and tutors. In the Americas, however, slavery emerged as a system of forced labor designed for the production of staple crops. Depending on location, these crops included sugar, tobacco, coffee, and cotton; in the southern United States, by far the most important staples were tobacco and cotton. Slavery caused many problems between the north and south. Some in the north thought that slavery was evil and that it must be gotten rid of. The north saw it as a way of the south having more power and a slowing of the industrial economy. The north’s negative view towards slavery and the south’s dependence apon them, caused a big rift between north and south. With the addition of so many new states after the war with Mexico, the disagreement about slavery could no longer be avoided.

Differences

The north valued education much more than the south, which caused a cultural differences. The north’s lack of good soil, made them more reliant on industry than farming, which caused even more tension with the south(since it affected how the north saw slavery and the economy) The south’s population was spread out and neighbors weren’t as close as they were in the south. Many people were home schooled in the south. Religion and thinking was very different in the south than in the north.All of these cultural and geographical differences of the north and south created tensions between the two. Which soon grew to the point of war, and south secession.

Wilmot Proviso

The Wilmot Proviso, one of the major events leading to the Civil War, would have banned slavery in any territory to be acquired from Mexico in the Mexican War or in the future, including the area later known as the Mexican Cession, but which some proponents construed to also include the disputed lands in south Texas and New Mexico east of the Rio Grande.[1]

Congressman David Wilmot first introduced the Proviso in the United States House of Representatives on August 8, 1846 as a rider on a $2 million appropriations bill intended for the final negotiations to resolve the Mexican-American War. (In fact this was only three months into the two-year war.) It passed the House but failed in the Senate, where the South had greater representation. It was reintroduced in February 1847 and again passed the House and failed in the Senate. In 1848, an attempt to make it part of the Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo also failed. Sectional conflict over slavery in the Southwest continued up to the Compromise of 1850.

Election of Lincoln

This highly angered the south, who felt that his election was a treat to their way of life, their political power, and their state’s rights.

His winning of election was the final straw.

So...

The south secession was caused by the overwhelming rift between north and south. Issues over slavery and state’s rights. The rift finally got too big to ignore.

After secession

The U.S. went into a civil war.

On Mar. 2, 1867, Congress enacted the Reconstruction Act, which, supplemented later by three related acts, divided the South (except Tennessee) into five military districts in which the authority of the army commander was supreme.

Things like the reconstruction acts were ways the country got reunited again.

sources http://www.civilwarhome.com/statesrights.htm

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wilmot_Proviso

http://thomaslegion.net/orderofsecessionofsouthernstates.html

sources cont.

http://wiki.answers.com/Q/Why_did_the_South_secede_from_the_Union

http://www.paralumun.com/warsouthsecedes.htm