Civil War Notes

Civil War Notes

By Madison Nef

Picking up where my last section of notes left off- most Southerners began to view the Republican’s election victory as a huge triumph for those in the North who wanted to abolish slavery, slave trading etc. This held especially true for seven of the “Deep” southern states: South Carolina, Alabama, Mississippi, Louisiana, Georgia, Texas and Florida. Pro-secessionist colonies quickly formed in these states, and by December of 1860, the lower states began to pass ordinances of secession.

-          -Delegates sent to a convention in Montgomery

-          -Constitution written and government established for a new nation

-          -“Confederate States of America”

These “Confederate States” began to model themselves and build up on what the states had already built, calling themselves the rightful successors and promoting themselves as better than the original states. The Confederate leaders of these states chose well-balanced leaders, and then began conversing with the only 8 slave-holder states left in the country: Arkansas, Delaware, Kentucky, Maryland, Missouri, North Carolina, Tennessee and Virginia; asking them to join them.

This initial phase of succession represented a large but risky step for the Lower South in protecting slavery rights- it was largely frowned upon and many of the polls guaranteed defeat, calling it an attempt to “undermine the economic and social bases of their society”.