Transcript Opposing Views on Secession - Thomas C. Cario Middle School

Opposing Views on
Secession
8-4.4 Focus Question: What were the different
viewpoints regarding secession prior to late 1860?
The election of 1860 prompted South
Carolina to secede from the Union.
Why? Because Lincoln was a Republican (Free-Soiler)
and therefore opposed slavery in the territories, many
Southerners assumed it was only a matter of time
before the Constitution was amended to end slavery.
Mount Rushmore
Started in 1924 and finished in 1941 in the Black
Hills of South Dakota
George Washington
Thomas Jefferson
Teddy Roosevelt
Abe Lincoln
Southerners were unwilling to let
slavery be outlawed.
Ending slavery would drastically change
Southern society and decrease Southern wealth
and political influence. Many feared it would
cause the entire economy to collapse in the
South.
South Carolina, the radical state, led the
secession from the Union.
Without waiting for Lincoln to be sworn in as
President, South Carolina and six other states would
secede from the Union to protect the institution of
slavery and the Southern way of life.
Not everyone supported the idea of
seceding from the Union in South
Carolina.
Three different groups emerged with different
ideas on what should be done after Lincoln’s
election in 1860.
Gardens at Middleton Place
argued that breaking away from the Union was the
only answer for South Carolina. There was absolutely
no other option! The extreme secessionists were also
known as radicals or “fire-eaters.” Robert
Barnwell Rhett was a well-known fire-eater.
were South Carolinians who favored seceding from
the Union only as a last resort and only if other
Southern states did so as well. They stressed the
need to cooperate with the other southern
slaveholding states for unity and strength.
were South Carolinians who wanted to remain
part of the Union. Although they did not agree
with the Northern states or federal government,
they thought that the Constitution would
protect South Carolinians rights to have slaves.
In the end, sectional tensions proved too strong
for the Unionists, and South Carolina led the
South in breaking away from the United States.
Rumors of a smallpox outbreak led the convention
to be moved from Columbia, the capital, to quickly
and conveniently adjourn to Charleston where
support for secession was strongest.
On December 20, 1860, a convention of the
“People of South Carolina” met in Charleston and
ratified the Ordinance of Secession.
We, the People of the State of South
Carolina, in Convention assembled, do
declare and ordain…
that the union now subsisting between
South Carolina and other States, under the
name of "The United States of America, "is
hereby dissolved.
– South Carolina Ordinance of Secession
The streets of Charleston were festive
in the spirit of Southern pride.
Everyone now looked to Lincoln and to
Washington, DC for some kind of reaction. Would
secession lead to war?
By the time Lincoln took office in March,
seven states had seceded and formed
the Confederate States of America.
The New Confederacy now needed a president. A
Mississippi Senator was elected as the President of
the Confederacy, Jefferson Davis. The capital of the
Confederacy would be Montgomery, Mississippi for
a brief time, then move to Richmond, Virginia.
Early , early in the morning on April 12,
1861, residents of Charleston were
woken by the sounds of canon fire in
the harbor.
The first shots of the Civil war were being fired
at Fort Sumter in Charleston Harbor. This was
the start of the Civil War.
“At half past four the
booming of a cannon. I
sprang from my bed,
and on my knees
prostrate I prayed as I
have never prayed
before.”
Mary Boykin Chestnut who is staying
in Charleston, wakes and realizes her
husband was out in the Charleston
Bay in a boat after delivering a
message to the Yankees at Fort
Sumter.
Fearing the worst,
she makes her way
to a rooftop to see
what is going on.
“I Knew my husband was rowing in a boat
somewhere in the dark bay, and that the
shells were roofing it over, bursting
towards the fort.”
Last night or this morning truly, up on the
housetop I was so weak and weary I sat
down on something that looked like a black
stool. “Get up you foolish woman. Your
dress is on fire,” cried a man. And he put
me out. I was on a chimney and the sparks
had caught my clothes.
Mary Boykin Chestnut watches the battle unfold at
Fort Sumter. The Civil War is started in Charleston.
The Presidential Challenge!
Can you name all 16 Presidents up to the Civil War?
John Adams
1797-1801
Thomas
Jefferson
1801–1809
James
Madison
1809-1817
James Monroe
1817–1825
John Quincy Adams
1825 -1829.
Andrew Jackson
1829-1837
Martin Van Buren
1837–1841
William Henry
Harrison
1841
John Tyler
1841–1845
James Polk
1845-1849
Zachary Taylor
1849-1850
Millard Fillmore
1850–1853
Franklin Pierce
1853–1857
James Buchanan
1857–1861
Abraham Lincoln
1861-1865