Expectant Immediatism: The South Carolina Secession Movement, 1859-1861

Abstract

This thesis argues that South Carolina officials sought to coordinate a mass-secession of Southern U.S. states in order to form an independent slaveholder’s republic. Previous accounts of South Carolina secession suggest that many politicians from the Palmetto state sought to cooperate with Unionists or precipitately vacated the Union only after Lincoln’s election because of their fears of an anti-slavery Republican administration. Instead, this thesis demonstrates that South Carolina began a coordinated campaign for secession well before Lincoln’s victory. John Brown’s Raid at Harper’s Ferry motivated South Carolinians to orchestrate a mass exodus of slaveholding states from the Union in order to preserve the institution of slavery.