Because the southern states considered themselves as sovereign and capable of running their own business. The northern states attempted to push the south into doing what the north wanted, and so the south began seceding.
The term for the southern states leaving the Union during the American Civil War is "secession." This movement began in 1860, following the election of Abraham Lincoln, and led to the formation of the Confederate States of America. Eleven southern states ultimately seceded, which contributed to the conflict between the North and South.
Just after the election of Lincoln the southern states began to talk about leaving the Union. In April of 1861 South Carolina left the Union and Confederate forces attacked Ft. Sumter in Charleston's harbor. This began the civil war.
Following Lincoln's 1860 election win, on a ticket of no new slave-states, the South saw that it would always be outvoted in Congress, which would tend to pass laws that favoured the North. So the Confederacy began, with South Carolina seceding from the USA in December, and six more by the time of Lincoln's inauguration in March. After the firing on Fort Sumter, and Lincoln's appeal for volunteer-troops, another four states joined them, making-up the eleven states of the Confederacy.
Lincoln vowed to outlaw slavery
Lincoln
Because the southern states considered themselves as sovereign and capable of running their own business. The northern states attempted to push the south into doing what the north wanted, and so the south began seceding.
The one and only president of the Confederacy was born in Kentucky, but also lived in Louisiana and Mississippi. He was serving as a U.S. Senator from Mississippi when Southern states began seceding from the Union in 1860 and 1861.
December 20, 1860
Abraham Lincoln was president when the first states began seceding. Lincoln's election was basically the final straw that made the states want to secede.
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The American Civil War began on April 12, 1861, when Southern troops fired on Union-held Fort Sumter, located in the harbor of Charleston, South Carolina. The fort had been promised supplies by President Lincoln; Southern forces then acted decisively to take the fort. Soon thereafter, the war erupted in earnest, with more Southern states seceding and Northern states mobilizing for the war effort.
Lincoln had all ready set up the conditions for reunification of southern states. Johnson carried out his plans for allowing them to become part of the union.
Pierce's support of popular sovereignty - allowing the settlers in territories to vote to decide to allow or forbid slavery- upset the delicate balance between slave and free states that since the Missouri Compromise, had kept the union together. Southern states began to more easily envision a day when they would be forced to give up slavery and so began to talk more seriously about seceding from the union. He did nothing to reduce the tariffs which were an especial annoyance in the South.
Southern states secede from the union and then the Civil War began.