The South Seceding from the Union

Issues of slavery, alone, have always caused arguments and sometimes-violent disputes in America. When most people hear the word slavery they think of the cruel and harsh conditions blacks were put through during antebellum times and how this once caused the Rebels (South) to secede from the Union in 1860 and 1861. However in reality there were actually many reasons, including conflicting beliefs, the Election of 1860, and fear of emancipation that led the South to secede from the Union.

The Election of 1860 had a hard impact on mainly Southerners. Abraham Lincoln who was elected over Stephen Douglas, with 40% of the popular vote and 180 electoral votes, was against slavery. The election opened many Southerners eyes to reveal that the President was now not on their side. Document 1 shows both the feelings of the Democratic (Southern) and Republican parties on slavery. Republicans denied any territorial legislature or any existence to slavery in any territory of the U.S. and the Democrats believed that slaves were considered property and that the Bill of Rights prevented such rights of being took away. Slavery is not the main issue here, this was just one
Slavery was a big issue, causing Uncle Tom’s Cabin to be written which revealed the evils of slavery and how it harmed everyone associated with it. The South was infuriated; after all they had been using slaves to help on plantations and farms since the early 1700’s. The Dred Scott Decision was thought to have settled the dispute in 1857, by deciding that no black slave or free could be a citizen in the United States. Popular sovereignty, which allowed the voters who lived in a territory to vote whether or not to allow slavery there, was still a hope in Kansas for the Republicans. In 1855 hundreds of Missouri residents crossed into Kansas to vote illegally. In result pro-slavery officials took control of the legislature, passed laws to uphold slavery and also made it a crime to criticize or to act against...