Declaration of Secession

In this document, the state of South Carolina has announced that ti will secede from the
Federal Union because of how unfairly they are being treated. During this time a lot was
happening in the United State. Abraham Lincoln had just be announced as the new president and
there was a huge debate about slave issues. As weve read before about how evil the institution
of slavery was, slaves would escape from Southern states and travel north. However by a series
of laws called the Fugitive Slave Acts, any Northerner was to return that slave to its rightful
owner. The whole nation was in agreement about this topic. The northern states did not abide by
these rules and found every way possible to avoid giving back the slaves and making them return
to the south. This did not sit right with the southerners and they felt they were being cheated and
it was unlawful. The state of South Carolina took action and represented the same problems in
their document in addition to recognizing the election of Abraham Lincoln wasnt in their favor.
They knew with his election there was going to be a new nation forming. South Carolina decided
to secede from the Union and become an independent state, in which they could form alliances,
wage wars, and act as any independent state would do. Other southern states began to do the
same thing and after the Confederacy was formed among them.
According to this document, the other fourteen states had been harboring fugitive slaves.
These states were non-slaveholding states and by keeping the states they violated the
Constitution. As it states in the Constitution of the United States, No person held to service or
labor in one State, under the laws thereof, escaping into another, shall, in consequence of any law
or regulation therein, be discharged from such service or labor, but shall be delivered up, on
claim of the party to whom such service or labor may be due (Fourth Article). Northern states
were obligated to report to authorities if they had seen a slave. As it is stated in the document,In
many of these States the fugitive is discharged from service or labor claimed, and in none of
them has the State Government complied with the stipulation made in the Constitution (par. 5).
This is completely against the fourth article and it angered many South Carolina and other
southern states. The union was formed in an agreement that the south got to keep their slaves
even if they escaped north. The property that is implied here are obviously the runaway slaves.
These humans were documented as property during that time, therefore the people that paid for
them lost money in exchange of not receiving them back. This document does indeed help us
determine if the Civil War was fought over slavery, but there are other factors as well. Slavery is
the big reason why the north and the south went into war, but it also had to do with states rights.
In this document it seems that the northern states were not abiding by the laws of the land.
Southern states were so keen not to allow the north to cause the extinction of slavery. Therefore
as it is stated in the book, South Carolina, which had long been in the forefront of southern
rights and proslavery agitation, was the first state to secede. (Brands pg. 333).
The author of this document seems to be the majority of the people of South Carolina.
The state took a majority vote to express their concerns regarding what was happening. This is a
declaratory statement. The message of this source is that the people of South Carolina are not
going to stand by while the northern states are breaking Constitutional laws and not returning
their slaves. The intended audience of this source is the whole nation and especially the
Congress. People from the south knew that the newly elected president, Abraham Lincoln was
not going to be in their favor. They knew a Republican president would want to abolish the
institution of slavery. This source was created for that exact reason. The south depended on
slaves to work on their plantations and farms so they can make a living. This source is credible

and accurate, because soon after other southern states sided with South Carolina and formed the
Confederacy. Which later caused the clash between the north and the south also known as the
Civil War. This source is valuable to me, because it taught me how the Civil War was started. It
demonstrates the ripple effect of how the south combined together against the north.