How Radical Republican Antislavery Rhetoric and Violence Precipitated Secession, October 1859 - April 1861

THE SOUTHERN STATES democratically voted to leave the Union in 1860-61. Why Southern voters (the majority of whom did not own slaves) should wish to leave the Union is still hotly debated. This book explores a series of acts of antislavery violence between October 1859 and April 1861, committed by northerners, supported by Republicans, and winked at by the Republican Party (Harper's Ferry, northern prior support for the raid, northern post-facto endorsement of John Brown, the Helper book, the Texas troubles). When a Republican was elected to the White House in 1860, Southerners interpreted that as an endorsement of antislavery violence, so they voted to leave the Union.