CHAPTER ONE SECESSION AND THE CIVIL WAR On December 17 1860 South Carolina's delegates gathered in a church The church was in the state capital Columbia A banner hung from the ceiling It read South Carolina Convention of 1860. Convention president David F Jamison stood up to speak He said the people of South Carolina were unhappy with the US Constitution The Constitution lists the country's laws and people's rights It also gives states the right to make their own laws In November 1860 people of South Carolina met and decided to hold a state convention on secession from the United States
The Southern states formed the Confederate States of America CSA Jamison said the federal government was not serving the people of South Carolina South Carolina's state laws supported the enslavement of Black people But the federal government limited slavery Jamison said the people of South Carolina should be free from the US government On December 20 the people voted One hundred sixty nine delegates voted to
secede They wanted to leave the United States No one voted to stay Ten other Southern states left the Union after South Carolina They were Mississippi Florida Alabama Georgia Louisiana Texas Virginia Arkansas North Carolina and Tennessee Together they formed the Confederate States of America CSA The states that made up the CSA all had one thing in common Slavery was legal there It was illegal in most states in the Union However SLAVERY IN AMERICA Enslaved people were first brought to the American colonies in the early 1600s Colonists forced them to work on farms Many men and women were taken from Africa Others were born into slavery By 1830 the Southern states depended on slave labor to grow food and crops such as cotton and sugar In 1860 there were nearly 4 million enslaved Black people in the United States some slave states did not leave These states were on the border between the North and South They included Maryland
