Emma Pospisil

Mr. Fronk

World Geography

Saturday, May 20

Liberty or Death: The Secessionists Justification for Southern Secession

1. The Southern elite led the charge to the Southern Secession from the United States of

America. They did this to form the Confederate States of America. They wanted to secede

because they said that the Union no longer represented them and their interests.

2. The Southern elite held the Federal Government positions in the South. The Southern elites

were also the minority population.

3. The majority of the Southern population despised the Southern elite. They had most of the

wealth in the South and saw themselves as superior or above the non-slave holding work class.

4. The collapse of the Know-Nothing-Party allowed the elites to represent the South in the

Government. This collapse left the Democratic Party without a meaningful opposition party.

5. Texas was composed of four distinct subcultures. These were the Lower South, the Upper

South, Mexican and western European. The Lower South culture was Texas largest unified

cultural group. The other three cultural groups supported the Federal Government. The one side

argued that Texans should remain loyal to the Union, because the Government was a great

institution. The other side argued that Texans should remain loyal to the Union, because of the

Governments practicality.
6. The Democratic Party represented many of the ideals which were promoted by the Lower

South Culture.

7. The federation between the Lower South Culture and the Democratic Party created an

imbalance in Texas.

8. The idea that the Federal Government no longer represented Texas spread throughout Texas.

The Lower South and the Democratic Party both had the idea of secession to free themselves

from the Government and create a better Union.

9. This act canceled the Missouri Compromise. It also stated that popular sovereignty would

determine slavery within each territory.

10. The Southern elites saw the Kansas-Nebraska Act as a huge victory. It opened the possibility

that slavery could expand into the western territories.

11. The Kansas-Nebraska Act constructed the Republican Party. This Party had an anti-slavery

platform and a desire to repeal the Kansas-Nebraska Act.

12. In 1860, the Republican Party took control of the Executive and Legislative branches of the

Federal Government. This upset the Southern elites because they believed their interests were

split by the Government

13. The Southern elites stated that if the Kansas-Nebraska Act was repealed, any possibility of

equal representation of the South wouldn't exist.

14. The Southern elites overwhelmed the South with pamphlets, articles and editorials. They

claimed the prevailing social order of the South should be preserved. They believed that this act

would help the federal government.

15. The Northern and Republican political and social rhetoric gave power the Southern elites,

that they were now part of the government that isolated them and stopped representing them.

16. The Southern elite didn't want to see the expansion of certain Northern economic policies in

the South including civilization and the national existence of the South and political relations

which governed the wealth. The South needed to export raw materials to both domestic and

foreign markets. The Northern manufacturers needed to get the local raw materials for a good

price.

17. The Southern elites did not want the labor practices of the North to take over the South. The

Southern elite were known for their agricultural work ethic. The Northern middle class believed

that this concept of wage-labor was important. The North had evolved into a market-based

economy and promoted the concept of wage-labor. The southern elite saw wage-labor as

enslavement of the white man.

19. All of these claims by the Southern elite were made to convince the South that the Union no

longer represented them and that they must secede from the Union. They promoted secession

because they wanted to maintain their political, social, and economic superiority over everyone

in the South, both white and African Americans.

20. I think that the author is you