Don’t believe the Cliff notes and Weekly Reader version of the Second American Civil War (the revolution being the first).
It reasons were as varied as the men who chose to fight it.
The states seceded in this order
1. South Carolina (December 20, 1860)
2. Mississippi (January 9, 1861)
3. Florida (January 10, 1861)
4. Alabama (January 11, 1861)
5. Georgia (January 19, 1861)
6. Louisiana (January 26, 1861)
7. Texas (February 1, 1861; confirmed by popular vote on February 23)
These states were by and large controlled by a very small slave holding elite.
Ft. Sumter (April 12) and then Lincoln’s call up of 75,000 troops to invade his own country (April 15).
Remember, Lincoln was elected with only 39.7% of the popular vote and 17 of 34 states. Two of Lincoln’s states were CA and OR with tiny populations and totally detached by what was then considered a desert of Indians and grass.
In response to and tipped over by the Federal government’s plan to invade its own states....
8. Virginia (April 17; referendum May 23, 1861)
9. Arkansas (May 6)
10. Tennessee (May 7; referendum June 8)
11. North Carolina (May 20)
Other states who might have joined the South’s resistance such as Maryland, Delaware, Missouri were short stroked by Federal occupation and targeted mass arrests of secessionists. Kentucky declared neutrality but was quickly invaded by Federal forces as local militias declared for the South.
Not to mention the tariff fights, the same basic cultural war being fought today, the ongoing Federalist vs anti-Federalist arguments, and a dozen other reasons including opportunism in both the Northern and Southern leadership.
Jefferson Davis had an adopted black son. US Grant owned slaves through his wife until 1866. Lincoln thought blacks inferior and that they should be resettled in Africa, not given equal rights. In effect, the radical abolitionist Republicans were the “gay activist’s” of their day. A tiny minority well connected to leadership and vocal. The large slave owners likewise hid behind states’ rights as they stitched together a diverse coalition of anti-federalists.
Like today, many groups and interests were used as a pawns/strike forces in a much larger struggle.
Karl Rove and his chalk board would have loved it. Go figure.
Woodrow Wilson was elected with only 41% of the vote and Clinton with only 43%. But like Lincoln they won solid majorities in the Electoral College.
I live in Missouri and we outlawed slavery in January 1865 so I don't think you're correct in that.
Having roots there (via Phila, Cumberland Gap, then KY), a big chunk of southern Illinois was decidedly of grey sympathies,
with a few having meandered over to Missouri to lend a hand to Quantrill, et al., and others to points south.
Much of the attitude remains to this day . . there's Shitcago, and there's Illinois, then there's southern.bygod.Illinois
This is inaccurate on several levels.
Julia Grant lived in MO. All slaves in MO were freed on Jan. 11, 1865.
Julia Grant often spoke of "her" slaves, a gift from her father, but the records are unclear whether legal title was ever transferred.
There were NO slaves left in America in 1866. 13A freed the last ones, about 50k in KY and a few hundred in DE, in December of 1865.
Grant owned one slave in his lifetime. He freed him before the war, at a time when his family was in desperate financial trouble, and the slave could have been sold for the equivalent today of tens of thousands of dollars.
Criticisms of Grant for hypocrisy on the slavery issue fall apart in every direction.
Never have understood supposed conservatives and constitutionalists presenting this as an argument to supposedly invalidate Lincoln's election.
He won a considerable majority of the Electoral College, the mechanism set up by the Constitution to elect the President. His popular vote percentage is comprehensively irrelevant.
He would have won the election even if his opponents had fused behind a single slate of anti-Lincoln electors.
Apparently, if the Constitution and its mechanisms don't produce the results you want, it's okay to take your ball and go home.
Don’t believe the Cliff notes and Weekly Reader version of the Second American Civil War (the revolution being the first).
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You can save your patronizing attitude for others, I’ll not react to it, beyond suggesting that others may well be as well read as you.
Note that I did not make the blanket statement that slavery was THE cause of the war.
If state’s rights are among the issues causing the war, as I very simply suggested, one of those state’s rights was in fact the right to hold other human beings in bondage. And CSA soldiers was fighting for that right. It’s a pretty non controversial position.