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Southern secession and the civil war
Three impacts of southern secession during the civil war
Union and confederacy economy
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The Mississippi Secession Convention consisted of delegates that the majority of them were pro-secession and also pro- slavery. The idea of secession came about because Mississippians feared that Abraham Lincoln was going to abolish slavery. The delegates in the convention held similar political and religious views. The fate of Mississippi leaving the Union was in the hands of the delegates that were chosen. The Mississippi Convention delegates were in distraught on their slavery institute being abolished by the upcoming presidential election because they felt they had rights to hold and protect slaves due to their wealth and hierarchy in the position of jobs.
The delegates were a big part of the secession and the conclusions of the secession. “Thus this book is not so much about the ‘secession crisis,’ but about the consequences of Mississippi secession” (Smith, pg. 12). For instance, the war was one of the anticipated consequences of the secession. The final decision would be up to the delegates that were chosen to represent their counties. If Mississippi wanted people to vote for secession they would need to bring reasons to the table on why Mississippi should secede from the Union, in this case, the delegates reasoning was to protect slavery.
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“Thus most support for secession came from new cotton counties opened since the Indian- suppressing days of Andrew Jackson” (Smith, pg. x). In the South, farming was something that most people relied on to make their money and cotton was a large crop that made them money. Without slaves, it would be difficult for some of the big planters that owned a lot of slaves to keep their wealth. Most of the delegates that participated in the convention were wealthy because of their farming and their slaves that they
Congress was put in a tough position when Missouri applied for statehood, for they couldn’t have an uneven number of states. If they didn’t have an even number, they would have to come up with another idea to make slave states and free states equal, such as adding a state or neutralizing an existing slave state. Instead of making one of the existing twenty-two states neutral to slavery they accepted Maine as free state. The acceptance of Maine as it’s own state did not occur until 1820, but the addition of it did even the amount of slave states and free states to twelve and twelve. The Missouri Compromise did not only ban slavery from Maine and allow s...
The United States began to dissatisfy some of its citizens and so the concerns of sectionalism, or the split of the country began to arise. There was a continuous riff between the south and the north over a few issues, a major one being slavery. The south argued that the slaves were necessary to support the southern economy. According to document A, the south were angry that the north was creating taxes that hurt the southern economy, thus increasing the need for slavery since they had to make up for the expense of the taxes. The south felt that the north was able...
Therefore, the South argued that the sudden end to the slave economy would have a profound impact as slavery served as the backbone of the southern economy. Slavery was an integral part of the South’s way of life that they did not want to relinquish. In fact, Eli Whitney’s invention of the cotton gin transformed the South and made slavery even more important. Therefore, in an effort to convince the other states to secede, Southern commissioners traveled to the states to give speeches in which they would use emotion in order to gain support from the states. First, Southern commissioners feared racial equality and claimed that “our fathers made this a government for the white man.” (604) Secondly, the commissioners feared that the Northern Republicans would infiltrate the South “to excite the slave to cut the throat of his master.” (605) Lastly, the commissioners feared interracial amalgamation and matrimony. According to Dew, “whites forced to endure racial equality, race war, a staining of the blood-who could tolerate such things?” (605) Therefore, Dew successfully proves that the founding documents showed that the South seceded over
Eudora Alice Welty practically spent her whole life living in Mississippi. Mississippi is the setting in a large portion of her short stories and books. Most of her stories take place in Mississippi because she focuses on the manners of people living in a small Mississippi town. Writing about the lives of Mississippi folk is one main reason Welty is a known author. Welty’s stories are based upon the way humans interact in social encounters. She focuses on women’s situations and consciousness. Another thing she mostly focuses on is isolation. In almost all of Welty’s earlier stories the main character is always being isolated. Throughout her short stories, a hidden message is always evident. Eudora Welty does a wonderful job of exposing social prejudices in the form of buried messages.
The Mississippi Constitution and the U.S. Constitution are both similar and different at the same time. For example, both of the preambles are similar and focused on the people that live there. However, the Mississippi Constitution has some limitations that the U.S. Constitution does not hold its people accountable for.
At the time, the South depended on slavery to support their way of life. In fact, “to protect slavery the Confederate States of America would challenge the peaceful, lawful, orderly means of changing governments in the United States, even by resorting to war.” (635) Lincoln believed that slavery was morally wrong and realized that slavery was bitterly dividing the country. Not only was slavery dividing the nation, but slavery was also endangering the Union, hurting both black and white people and threatening the processes of government. At first, Lincoln’s goal was to save the Union in which “he would free none, some, or all the slaves to save that Union.” (634) However, Lincoln realized that “freeing the slaves and saving the Union were linked as one goal, not two optional goals.” (634) Therefore, Lincoln’s primary goal was to save the Union and in order to save the Union, Lincoln had to free the slaves. However, Paludan states that, “slave states understood this; that is why the seceded and why the Union needed saving.” (634) Lincoln’s presidential victory was the final sign to many Southerners that their position in the Union was
I have lived in Mississippi all my life and have had an opportunity to travel throughout the state. In doing so, I have observed several things that will important in this discussion. They are the music, the people, and the resources.
As the country began to grow and expand we continued to see disagreements between the North and South; the Missouri Territory applied for statehood the South wanted them admitted as a slave state and the North as a free state. Henry Clay eventually came up with the Missouri Compromise, making Missouri a slave state and making Maine it’s own state entering the union as a free state. After this compromise any state admitted to the union south of the 36° 30’ latitude would be a slave state and a state north of it would be free. The country was very much sectionalized during this time. Thomas Jefferson felt this was a threat to the Union. In 1821, he wrote, ”All, I fear, do not see the speck on our horizon which is to burst on us as a tornado, sooner or later. The line of division lately marked out between the different portions of our confederacy is such...
The southern economy was largely dependent on slaves, who worked on the numerous plantations of the South. Moreover, the main purpose of slavery in the South was for the cultivation of these cotton plantations. (Doc 4) For this reason, southerners believed
Southerners believed that if outnumbered to free states in Congress, laws would be passed to abolish slavery in the South, thus causing economic downfall in the South.
...ld not protect the interest of the Southern states. Coupled with the hostilities, lack of votes for Lincoln from the South and disregard for the constitutional protection of slavery is a justifiable reason from the Southern leaders to secede from the Union.
In the 1860 presidential election, Republicans, led by Abraham Lincoln, opposed the expansion of slavery into United States' territories. Lincoln won, but before his inauguration on March 4, 1861, seven slave states with cotton-based economies formed the Confederacy. The first six to secede had the highest proportions of slaves in their populations, a total of 48.8% for the six. Outgoing Democratic President James Buchanan and the incoming Republicans rejected secession as illegal. Lincoln's inaugural address declared his administration would not initiate civil war. Eight remaining slave states continued to reject calls for secession. Confederate forces seized numerous federal forts within territory claimed by the Confederacy. A peace conference failed to find a compromise, and both sides prepared for war. The Confederates assumed that European countries were so dependent on "King Cotton" that they would intervene; none did and none recognized the new Conf...
The South was unhappy at their current situation in the union and accordingly seceded from the union. Ironically, the principle that proposed to divide the nation stemmed from the very one that had caused its union. The civil war, similar to that of the revolution, was nothing more than a fight for independence. Because Lincoln formulated every political thought from the Declaration of Independence, the South could not justify secession. It could not secede because there were no liberties or God-given rights being violated by the government like had caused the Revolutionary War.
...ed have been defeated and the Government itself has been destructive of them by the action of the nonslaveholding states,”- declared South Carolina, feeling discontent about the government “encouraging and assisting thousands of slaves to leave their homes.” (A Declaration of the Causes Which Induced the Secession of South Carolina, South Carolina, December 24, 1860) Lincoln responded to this action that no state has a right to leave the Union: “In doing this there needs to be bloodshed and violence; and there shall be none, unless it be forced upon the national authority.” (Abraham Lincoln, The US History, Chapter 17, p.338, 1977) But the southern answer was war!
...forces “who are battling for their rights and for an institution in which Kentucky, Virginia, and Tennessee are [as] interested…” “…The vandals of the North… are determined to destroy slavery… We must all fight, and I choose to fight for southern rights and southern liberty…,” (McPherson, 20). This was also an issue of liberty to Confederates. Life, liberty and property, slaves, were being jeopardized to them. The idea of losing their property also motivated them enlist. To many of the Union soldiers, this was a way to bring justice to the slaves. They knew that the south would never give up this tradition willingly because it benefited them. The war was letting the slaves have their voice as people. A man from Ohio worked as an artillery officer believed that the war “will not be ended until the subject of slavery is finally and forever settled…,” (McPherson, 19).