When Did the States Secede?

The election of Abraham Lincoln in 1860 was the final straw for many southerners. In all 11 states seceded from the Union. Four of these (Virginia, Arkansas, North Carolina, and Tennessee) did not secede until after the Battle of Fort Sumter that occurred on April 12, 1861. Five additional states were Border Slave States that did not secede from the Union: Missouri, Kentucky, West Virginia, Maryland and Delaware.

Order of Secession During the American Civil War

State Date of Secession South Carolina December 20, 1860 Mississippi January 9, 1861 Florida January 10, 1861 Alabama January 11, 1861 Georgia January 19, 1861 Louisiana January 26, 1861 Texas February 1, 1861 Virginia April 17, 1861 Arkansas May 6, 1861 North Carolina May 20, 1861 Tennessee June 8, 1861

1. How many states seceded prior to Lincoln’s inauguration? ______

2. How many states seceded after his inauguration? ______A political cartoon from 1861 shows Florida, Alabama, Mississippi, and Louisiana as men riding donkeys, following South Carolina's lead toward a cliff. Florida, immediately behind South Carolina, cries, "Go it Carolina! We are the boys to "wreck" the Union." 3. Explain what is happening in this cartoon. Why might one donkey be heading off on a different path? What is the cliff that the others are riding towards symbolic of?

Use this link for answering questions 4-7 4. What year did South Carolina decide that it had the right to secede from the Union, even if it didn’t immediately exercise that right?

5. What did South Carolina use as justification for secession when looking back to the Declaration of Independence? Find two or three direct quotes used to justify their position. 6. What specifically does South Carolina charge the United States with failing to uphold, therefore failing to “live up to” their end of their Constitutional responsibility?

7. South Carolina uses a direct quote from Lincoln’s “House Divided” speech to prove that the north wants the extinction of slavery. What is that quote? Having learned about Lincoln’s plans with regard to slavery, is South Carolina right to worry about the end of slavery in their state under a Lincoln administration?

Use this LINK for answering questions 8-9 8. Why does Georgia argue that an abolition party didn’t exist in the north for the first 50 years that the government was in operation, and what would have prohibited this party from controlling the government even if one did exist?

9. Who is the state of Georgia referring to when it writes that…for twenty years past the abolitionists and their allies in the Northern States have been engaged in constant efforts to subvert our institutions and to excite insurrection and servile war among us. Who is Georgia specifically referring to in the example used from that paragraph?

Use this LINK for answering questions 10-11 10. What does Mississippi use as their rationale for leaving the Union over slavery in regards to their commerce? Be specific.

11. Describe what would the “utter subjugation” look like for the state of Mississippi if it stayed in the Union according to this document? Use this LINK for answering questions 12-14 12. Describe what Texas feels is their continuing issue with attacks by “Indian savages” and how the federal government has failed to help deal with this issue.

13. What law does Texas accuse the states of Maine, Vermont, New Hampshire, Connecticut, Rhode Island, Massachusetts, New York, Pennsylvania, Ohio, Wisconsin, Michigan and Iowa of violating?

14. Who does Texas believe that the United States was founded to benefit exclusively? What does Texas say is the only “tolerable or beneficial” way for Africans to remain in the United States?

Use the following LINK to answer question 15 15. Did Texas Governor Sam Houston agree that Texas should secede from the Union? What did he argue might be a better alternative?