Timeline
This time line was compiled by Joanne Freeman and owes a special debt to the Encyclopedia of American History by Richard B. Morris. What caused the Deep South to secede from the Union?Southern states seceded from the union in order to protect their states' rights, the institution of slavery, and disagreements over tariffs. Southern states believed that a Republican government would dissolve the institution of slavery, would not honor states' rights, and promote tariff laws.
Why did the states of the Deep South secede from the Union sooner than the states of the Upper South and the border states check all that apply?Why did the states of the Deep South secede from the Union sooner than the states of the Upper South and the border states? Slavery was more deeply entrenched in the Deep South than it was in the Upper South or the border states. The Deep South was home to larger numbers of both slaveholders and slaves.
Why did the states of the Upper South wait before seceding?In the upper South, where slavery was less prominent and association with the North more pervasive, opposition to immediate secession was even stronger. States like Virginia, Tennessee, and Arkansas took a wait-and-see attitude, sometimes calling for a convention, sometimes rejecting demands.
What influenced the secession of states in the Deep South by the end of 1860?As early as 1850, South Carolina and Mississippi called for secession. By 1860, Southern politics was dominated by the idea of states' rights in the context of slavery to support the South's agricultural economy, and slave-heavy, cotton-producing agricultural states embraced secession as the solution.
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