Why Did The Southern States Want To Secede After The Civil War

When considering the reasons for the Southern States seceding from the union in 1861, it is important to consider that while the issue of slavery was the occasion of the Civil War, it was not the sole cause, the rights of individual states is also to be considered as a factor, as the Southern States felt it was their constitutional right to own slaves (Dew, 2001). The decision to secede without force of arms is also significant according to Benedict, as it would have disrupted the federal system greatly and there is no indication of what the consequences of this would have been (Benedict, 1988). Eleven states in total seceded from the union; South Carolina being the first, followed by Mississippi, Florida, Alabama, Georgia, Louisiana and Texas, with the final four leaving the union after the battle at Fort Sumter, Virginia, Arkansas, North Carolina and Tennessee (Kelly, 2017). Each of the Southern States that seceded in 1861 were very open about their commitment to slavery and the importance of slavery both in their economy and their decision to secede (Dew, 2001). In Georgia’s declaration of causes,
The Southerners believed that democracy meant having the right to continue their current way of life with an economy heavily reliant on the cotton trade and by extension, slavery. They also believed that the individual states should have the right to decide whether or not slavery should be legal. In 1860, South Carolina alone had over 400,000 slaves, making up around 65% of their population, and the loss of these as free labour would have meant many plantation owners would struggle greatly and many in the South would need to adapt to a completely new way of life (Trinkley, 2017). The Southern States felt that the North were threatening their current way of life and saw this as a more personal threat rather than an opposition to slavery