Browse Items (27 total)

Virginia's secession ordinance was created in April of 1861, after months of meeting as the Virginia Session. The Session was called on January 7, 1861, and met from February to May of that year. Many counties in the western part of the state felt…

In the first image of the cartoon, a slave who has been given a pike by John Brown is depicted using the weapon as a potato-farming tool, rather than a weapon to fight with the revolt group as intended. In the bottom image, a southern plantation…

This cartoon was published in an 1860 issue of Harper’s Weekly, which was a Republican periodical before the Civil War. In 1860, the country was in a heated debate over slavery and secession. The cartoon portrays a baby sitting on top of a box…

Alexander H. Stephens (1812-1883), although originally opposed to secession, was elected vice-president of the Confederacy. After the war, he returned to political service in Georgia and in the House of Representatives. He served as governor of…

After the election of Republican Abraham Lincoln to the presidency on a sectional vote, South Carolina rejected cooperation with other slave states and seceded on December 20, 1860. In the following document, South Carolina set forth the state’s…