What led the Southern states to secede from the Union in 1860 and 1861?.
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 of many conflicting believes. In 1854 the Kansas/ Nebraska Act was passed, ending the fragile peace established by the Compromise of 1850. Douglas put forth the bill to organize the Kansas and Nebraska territories for settlement. He wanted to promote a railroad that started in Chicago, end in California and run through the Kansas territory. Southerners supported the bill because they thought that people from the slave state of Missouri would move west into Kansas so that it would become a slave state. Northerners saw the new law as a betrayal of both their interests and principles because it violated the Missouri Compromise of 1820. The K/N Act appeared to permit slavery in an area where it had been prohibited for almost 34 years.