Abstract
Secession and the civil war that followed are often regarded as having exclusively structural determinants, expressed in political cleavages. From this point of view, these events are explained, variously, by the rise of abolitionism in the North or sectionalism in the Union or some cultural attribute of the South. This focus gets us part of the way in understanding the events that led to secession, the creation of a Southern Confederacy, and civil war, but this interpretation says too little about precisely how these events and processes played out. Secession occurred in time, sequentially and dynamically, with one state leading and other states following. This article offers a processual specification of the conditions of Southern secession and the creation of a Southern Confederacy. It does so by focusing on mobilization within the vanguard state, South Carolina, and the consequences of this activity for other Southern states.
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Notes
Recall Pocock’s (1972:120) argument that the Revolution was “the last great act of the Renaissance.” We agree on the relevance of republicanism, as our discussion shows. In effect, it was the combination of the reformation and the renaissance (to pursue Pocock’s dramatic turn of phrase) that distinguished American politics. For more discussion, see Meadwell (2003).
Annals, 16th Congress, 1st session, 1310–1329.
According to Greenberg (1976: 366–367; see also Weir [1969:500–501]), this form “complied lists of grievances,” described “the perception of common forces and purposes operating behind instances of maltreatment,” included “the recognition of a pattern of oppression” and concluded that English ministers were conspiring to limit the freedom of the American colonies. Pinckney’s speech took this form, but was directed at the federal government, as did various state government documents in South Carolina in the run-up to nullification, well before the final act of secession. See, for example, Governor Thomas Bennett, Message, 1821; Special Committee Report and Resolutions on the Resolution Directing an Inquiry Into the Nature and Origins of the Federal Government..., December 19, 1827; Committee on Federal Relations, Report and Resolutions on the Government Message Respecting the Federal Government Overstepping Its Constitutional Boundary, December 17, 1830; Governor James Hamilton, Message, 1831; Committee on Federal Relations, Report and Resolution Calling For a Convention, December 11, 1832. State and Legislative Papers, State Archives of South Carolina.
See also James H. Hammond, Anniversary Oration of the State Agricultural Society of South Carolina, November 25, 1841, and Address Delivered by R. W. Roper Before the State Agricultural Society, November, 1844.
Upcountry plantations were dominated by cotton production, low country plantations by rice production. The ratio of slaves to whites was higher in the low country; the ratio of white slaveholding households to free households was higher in the upcountry. The average number of slaves by household was higher in the low country.
Mr. Rhett’s Address to the Citizens of Beaufort and Colleton County, February 3, 1838. Rhett Papers, South Caroliniana Library (SCL), University of South Carolina. [This address was published in Niles Register and it is an off print of this publication that was consulted in the Rhett Papers].
This political language was not new; it had emerged in reports of the Committee on Federal Relations of the South Carolina State legislature in the late 1820s. See Special Committee Report on the Resolution Directing An Inquiry..., December 19, 1827. State and Legislative Papers. State Archives of South Carolina.
See also James H. Hammond’s comment: “I do firmly believe that upon the success of Nullification rests the existence of our present institutions and that there is no other means by which they might be peaceably maintained”. Hammond to Rice, September 22, 1832. Hammond Papers, Library of Congress.
Abolitionist literature appeared at a time when the fear of black insurrection had increased in salience because of a slave revolt in Virginia, which recalled an earlier incident in 1822 in the Charleston hinterland. See Channing (1970).
Petigru to Pope, November 18 1830; Petigru to Legaré, October 29, 1832; December 21, 1832, SCL.
The crisis, in fact, was the occasion for a thorough review of the militia so as to ensure “the permanent security of the state.” Governor Hayne to the State Legislature, November 29, 1833. State and Legislative Papers. State Archives of South Carolina.
Address to the People of the United States, Report of the Convention of 1832, p.77 and p. 76.
Andrew Jackson to the Secretary of War, December 17, 1832. Emphasis in original, Jackson Papers, Library of Congress.
Report of the Committee of 1833, p.131.
Ibid., p. 131.
P.M. Butler to James H. Hammond, November 20 1832; William C. Clifton to Hammond, November 21, 1832; Butler to Hammond, December 18, 1832. Hammond Papers, Library of Congress. In fact, the Ordinance concluded, “... we will construe passage, by Congress, of any act, authorizing the employment of a military or naval force against the State of South Carolina her constituted authorities... or any other act on the part of the Federal Government , to coerce the State... as inconsistent with the longer continuance of South Carolina in the Union, and that the people of this State thenceforth hold themselves absolved from all further obligation to maintain or preserve their political connexion with the people of the other States and will forthwith proceed to organize a separate Government, and do all other acts and things which Sovereign and independent States may of right do.”
Robert Y. Hayne to James H. Hammond, March 6, 1833. Hammond Papers, Library of Congress.
See also Poinsett to Jackson, December 17, 1832. Jackson Papers, Library of Congress.
Poinsett to Jackson, January 7, 1833. Jackson Papers.
Wallace to Seabrook, November 7, 1849, Seabrook Papers, Library of Congress; David Johnson to Edward Johnson, October 2, 1850. Proceedings of the South Carolina Historical Association (1939), p. 29.
Proceedings of the Great Southern Co-Operation and Anti-Secession Meeting, September 23 1851. Italics in original.
Christopher G. Memminger to William Porcher Miles, 24 January 1860, William Porcher Miles Papers, Southern Historical Collection, University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill, North Carolina.
Christopher G. Memminger to William Porcher Miles, 6 February 1860, William Porcher Miles Papers, Southern Historical Collection, University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill, North Carolina.
William Henry Gist to Governor Thomas Moore, 5 October 1860, William Henry Gist Papers, South Caroliniana Library, University of South Carolina, Columbia, South Carolina.
Charleston Mercury, Saturday, 10 November 1860. Recounting a secession rally featuring prominent citizens of South Carolina and Georgia, the writer noted the following: “Were our Representatives at Columbia at the meeting last night... they would no longer falter or hesitate over what their constituents so ardently desire them to accomplish.”
Charleston Mercury, Saturday, 10 November 1860.
John Cunningham in the South Carolina House of Representatives, 10 November 1860, reported in Charleston Daily Courier, 12 December 1860.
State of South Carolina Senate Journal, called session, November 1860, page 22; Cauthen (1941), “South Carolina’s Decision”; McCarter’s Journal, Manuscript Collection, Library of Congress.
John Berkley Grimball to Elizabeth Grimball, 12 November 1860, John Berkley Grimball Papers, Manuscript Collection, Duke University.
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We are grateful to the three referees and particularly to the Theory and Society Editors for their comments and suggestions. Research and writing was supported by a grant to the first author from the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada.
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Meadwell, H., Anderson, L.M. Sequence and strategy in the secession of the American South. Theor Soc 37, 199–227 (2008). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11186-007-9047-8
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11186-007-9047-8