Primary sources. Direct quotes. The words of the men who did it.
At 4:30 a.m., Confederate batteries opened fire on Fort Sumter. The Union garrison had not fired a single shot.
Confederate commander P.G.T. Beauregard ordered the bombardment of Fort Sumter at 4:30 a.m. on April 12, 1861. Major Robert Anderson's Union garrison endured 34 hours before evacuating. The Confederacy fired first; the Union did not fire on Confederates before this attack.
Between December 1860 and June 1861, eleven states declared secession. Each public declaration cited threats to slavery, often by name. No hidden code, just explicit intent.
On March 21, 1861, Confederate Vice President Alexander Stephens told Savannah that the Confederacy rested on "the great truth that the negro is not equal to the white man."
The secession documents leave no room for debate. They stated their cause explicitly.
Our position is thoroughly identified with the institution of slavery, the greatest material interest of the world.- Mississippi Declaration of Secession, January 1861
Direct quotes from secession documents, speeches, and official records.
"Our new government is founded upon... the great truth that the negro is not equal to the white man; that slavery... is his natural condition."
"Our position is thoroughly identified with the institution of slavery... a blow at slavery is a blow at commerce and civilization."
"We stand for the segregation of the races... We oppose the elimination of segregation, the repeal of miscegenation statutes."
"The Democratic Party has abandoned the people... [The Civil Rights Act is] the worst, most unreasonable and unconstitutional legislation that has ever been considered."
"The Constitution does not permit any discrimination of any kind... But it is also true that the Constitution recognizes... the freedom to associate or not to associate."
"You start out in 1954 by saying 'n----r, n----r, n----r.' By 1968 you can't say that... So you say stuff like forced busing, states' rights... now you're talking about cutting taxes."
Four states issued formal declarations explaining their secession. Here's what they talked about.
"Our position is thoroughly identified with the institution of slavery—the greatest material interest of the world."
"An increasing hostility on the part of the non-slaveholding States to the institution of slavery, has led to a disregard of their obligations."
"For the last ten years we have had numerous and serious causes of complaint against our non-slave-holding confederate States with reference to the subject of African slavery."
"She was received as a commonwealth holding, maintaining and protecting the institution known as negro slavery—the servitude of the African to the white race."
Total across all four declarations: 81 mentions of slavery, 0 mentions of tariffs
The "economic factors" argument misses the point. The Southern economy was built on slavery. When they fought to preserve slavery, they were fighting to preserve their economy.
More than all American railroads, factories, and banks combined. Enslaved people were the largest financial asset in the country.
1860 U.S. Census →Nearly one-third of the Southern population was enslaved. Their unpaid labor generated the wealth that built the Southern economy.
1860 U.S. Census →Cotton was America's most valuable export. It was grown almost entirely by enslaved labor in the South.
Historical Statistics of the United States →Tariff disputes did exist between North and South. But the secession documents themselves reveal what mattered most:
If tariffs were the real cause, why didn't they say so? They were explicit about slavery because slavery was the issue.
Direct quotes from the official secession declarations.
"Our position is thoroughly identified with the institution of slavery—the greatest material interest of the world.
"An increasing hostility on the part of the non-slaveholding States to the institution of slavery, has led to a disregard of their obligations.
"For the last ten years we have had numerous and serious causes of complaint against our non-slave-holding confederate States with reference to the subject of African slavery.
"She was received as a commonwealth holding, maintaining and protecting the institution known as negro slavery—the servitude of the African to the white race.
Four different states, four different documents, one consistent message: they were seceding to preserve slavery. The "states' rights" reframing came later.
Compare the same eleven states across 164 years. The coalition shift is undeniable.
Southern Democrats dominated. Lincoln won zero of these states.
Ten of eleven now vote Republican. Virginia stands alone.
Click any state to see when and why it flipped
A century of struggle. Every federal reckoning left an imprint on party coalitions.
The Confederacy Falls. Lee surrenders at Appomattox. The war that began at Fort Sumter ends after four years and more than 750,000 dead. The eleven states that seceded to preserve slavery are defeated and occupied.
Lincoln Assassinated. Five days after Lee's surrender, John Wilkes Booth kills Lincoln. Vice President Andrew Johnson, a Tennessee Democrat and Southern sympathizer, takes over. He pardons Confederate leaders, returns land to planters, and opposes Black voting rights. Reconstruction is sabotaged from within.
Reconstruction. Congress overrides Johnson. The 13th, 14th, and 15th Amendments end slavery, establish birthright citizenship, and guarantee voting rights. Black men vote and hold office: Hiram Revels (MS) becomes the first Black U.S. Senator in 1870; Blanche Bruce (MS) follows in 1875; P.B.S. Pinchback serves as Louisiana's governor in 1872. Federal troops enforce the peace.
Redemption. Hayes defeats Tilden after disputed returns from FL, SC, and LA are resolved by a backroom deal: Democrats accept Hayes; Republicans withdraw federal troops. The Klan and 'Red Shirts' terrorize Black voters. White Democrats reclaim every Southern statehouse. Reconstruction dies; Jim Crow begins.
Disenfranchisement. Poll taxes, literacy tests, grandfather clauses, and white-only primaries strip Black citizens of the vote. Mississippi's 1890 constitution becomes the template. Plessy v. Ferguson (1896) blesses 'separate but equal.'
Wilmington Coup. Armed white supremacists overthrow the elected biracial government of Wilmington, North Carolina. They burn the Black newspaper, murder an estimated 60-300 citizens, and force officials to resign at gunpoint. It remains the only successful coup d'état in American history.
New Deal Coalition. FDR courts Black voters in Northern cities while keeping segregationist Dixiecrats in the tent. The Democratic Party now contains both the victims and enforcers of Jim Crow. An unstable alliance.
The First Crack. Truman integrates the military and backs a civil rights plank. Southern Democrats bolt, forming the States' Rights Party. Their platform: 'We stand for the segregation of the races.' Strom Thurmond carries four Deep South states.
Pressure Builds. Brown v. Board orders desegregation. Montgomery Bus Boycott, sit-ins, Freedom Rides, and Birmingham demonstrations force the issue. Southern Democrats filibuster. The coalition fractures.
The Pivot. Civil Rights Act passes—82% of Senate Republicans vote yes versus 69% of Democrats, as Southern Democrats filibuster. Barry Goldwater, who voted no, wins the GOP nomination and carries the Deep South. Strom Thurmond switches to Republican, calling the Act 'unconstitutional.' The realignment accelerates.
The Strategy Works. Nixon runs on 'law and order.' George Wallace runs as a segregationist third-party candidate and wins five Southern states. Combined, Nixon and Wallace take the white Southern vote from Democrats. The New Deal coalition is dead.
Southern Strategy. GOP strategists like Lee Atwater refine the playbook: avoid explicit racism, use 'states' rights,' 'welfare,' and 'crime' as proxies. Reagan launches his 1980 campaign in Neshoba County, Mississippi, where three civil rights workers were murdered, declaring: 'I believe in states' rights.' He sweeps the South.
Shelby County. Supreme Court guts Voting Rights Act preclearance. Within hours, states announce new voter ID laws, polling place closures, and registration restrictions. The battle over who votes continues in the same states that seceded in 1861.
Track the Republican share of former Confederate states from 1860 to 2024.
The battle over who votes continues in the former Confederacy.
Alabama requires photo ID to vote and closed 31 DMV offices in 2015—primarily in Black Belt counties with highest Black populations. After backlash, some part-time offices reopened.
Alabama Secretary of State; Brennan Center
Arkansas's voter ID law was struck down by state courts in 2014, then reinstated via constitutional amendment in 2018. The state has no early voting and limited absentee access.
Arkansas Secretary of State; National Conference of State Legislatures
Despite 2018's Amendment 4 restoring voting rights, Florida's legislature added fees requirement. Over 1.1 million Floridians with felony convictions remain disenfranchised—disproportionately Black.
Sentencing Project; Brennan Center
SB 202 (2021) cut metro-Atlanta drop boxes from 107 in 2020 to just 16, with steepest losses in Fulton and DeKalb counties—the state's largest Black population centers.
Georgia Public Broadcasting / ProPublica
Louisiana offers only 7 days of early voting (compared to 46 days in California). The state requires photo ID and has some of the most restrictive absentee voting rules in the nation.
Louisiana Secretary of State; Vote.org
Mississippi still uses an 1890 provision requiring statewide candidates to win both the popular vote AND a majority of state House districts—designed explicitly to dilute Black voting power.
Mississippi Constitution; Brennan Center
The 4th Circuit struck down NC's 2013 law, finding it targeted Black voters "with almost surgical precision." The legislature passed new restrictions (S747) in 2023.
NC NAACP v. McCrory, 4th Circuit
SC was the first state to pass a voter ID law after Shelby County (2013). A previous version was blocked by DOJ under preclearance. Current law requires photo ID with narrow exceptions.
South Carolina Election Commission; DOJ records
Tennessee made it a felony to submit incomplete voter registration forms (2019), targeting voter registration drives. A federal court blocked parts of the law as unconstitutional.
Tennessee HB 1079; League of Women Voters v. Hargett
Under SB 1 (2021), over 12,000 mail ballots were rejected in the first election—disproportionately affecting Black and Latino voters in Harris County and other urban areas.
Brennan Center for Justice
After adding no-excuse absentee voting and same-day registration, Virginia's 2020 turnout jumped 9 points—the largest increase in the South. Virginia is now the only former Confederate state voting Democratic.
Virginia Department of Elections
Major professional organizations summarize the consensus.
The AHA's '16 Months to Sumter' collection provides hundreds of primary sources showing 'the economics and morality of slavery' at the center of secession. They note that 'too few participants in these conversations have read the essential primary sources.'
Fort Sumter's official NPS history states that 'Charleston blazed a path towards secession to preserve slavery' and Confederate forces 'fired on the US garrison... opening the Civil War, which redefined American freedom.'
Government source - verified intact as of Dec 2025. Archive preserved as precaution.
Foner's Reconstruction: America's Unfinished Revolution won the Bancroft Prize and remains the standard history. It tracks how the party realignment followed federal enforcement of civil rights from the 1930s through the 1980s.
Britannica's entry on the Southern Strategy describes how 'the Republican Party... appealed to white southerners by emphasizing states' rights and coded racial messaging' to flip the formerly Democratic South.
If this contradicts what you learned, good. Check the sources yourself.
Every quote on this site links to the original document. Yale's Avalon Project, the National Archives, teaching archives at major universities. Click through. Read the full text. See if we're cherry-picking or if this is really what they said.
What you learned in school depended on when and where you went to school. Textbooks get rewritten. The Mississippi Declaration of Secession says the same thing it said in 1861.
If you think we got something wrong, check the source and tell us. The goal isn't to win an argument. It's to get the history right.
Start with the documents. Everything else is commentary.
Every source cited on this site—verified against archived copies.
Browse 27 Primary SourcesConfederate leaders said slavery was the cause. In writing. Repeatedly.
Segregationists switched parties after Democrats passed civil rights laws.
10 of 11 Confederate states now vote Republican. The coalitions flipped.
"Our position is thoroughly identified with the institution of slavery."
Mississippi Declaration of Secession, 1861
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