Chapter 1.0. Secession and Civil War, Introduction

The North Did Not Engage in the Civil War in Order to End Slavery. In 1860 both the Republican Party and Abraham Lincoln intended only to limit the extension of slavery into U.S. territories and, insofar as possible, into those western states where it was not already established. Neither the Republican Party nor Lincoln had any intention of fully eradicating slavery in the U.S., i.e., in the South, as Lincoln tried to explain in his First Inaugural Address, of March 1, 1861 (see below). Ending slavery in the South was thought to be impossible, and in any case most Republicans did not think that blacks should be fully equal to whites in legal and constitutional terms.

A belief in full racial equality, and the goal of completely ending all slavery in the U.S., were the hallmarks of the abolitionists. But in 1860 only a small minority of northern voters could be described as abolitionists.

Secession of South Carolina. Despite the fact that Lincoln’s and the Republican Party’s goals with respect to slavery focused mainly on limiting its expansion into the western territories, almost as soon as Lincoln won the election of 1860, which was held on Nov. 6, 1860, South Carolina began the process of seceding from the Union. Its legislature announced its opposition to Lincoln’s election on Nov. 9, 1860. On Dec. 17, delegates to a special convention called for this purpose voted unanimously to secede, and this decision was formally affirmed by the state government on Dec. 20.

Secession of the Next Six Confederate States. Within two months of South Carolina’s secession, six other states of the lower or “deep” South also seceded: Mississippi, Florida, Alabama, Georgia, Louisiana, and Texas. In his famous “Cornerstone Speech,” Alexander Stephens of Georgia, who served as the Confederacy’s Vice-President (1861-65), explained the reasons for secession (see below). By February these seven states had formed the Confederate States of America and written a new Confederate Constitution, which went into effect in early March (see below).

War and Four More Confederate States. The first Civil War battle took place on April 12-13, when Confederate forces bombarded and seized Fort Sumter, a federally-manned fort on an island in the harbor of Charleston, South Carolina. Only after Fort Sumter and as both sides began more serious preparations for war did four more states of the upper South join the Confederacy: Virginia, North Carolina, Tennessee, and Arkansas. This brought the total of Confederate states to eleven.

Five Border States. In addition to the eleven Confederate states, another four slave-holding states hesitated to secede from the Union and/or were seized by Union army forces quickly enough to prevent their joining the Confederacy. These border states were: Delaware, Maryland, Kentucky, and Missouri. In all of them loyalty was deeply divided, and in many cases local conflicts broke out that were difficult to contain. West Virginia effectively became a fifth border state in 1863, when it became a state. This mountainous part of Virginia had very few slaves, but resembled the other border states in that its population was divided in terms of which side they supported.