ON THIS DAY ·
Lincoln elected
6 Nov 1860 — Lincoln wins 40% of the popular vote and carries no Southern state. The population of the free states has made a purely sectional victory possible. South Carolina responds within days by summoning a convention.
WW2 is free in full, and chapter 1 of every atlas is free. A free account opens 3 more chapters a day. Starter, at $9 a month, opens all 21 with no daily limit — see the plans.
Free printable American Civil War study guide, sent by email ↓
The moment in context
A plantation produced cotton by forcing people to work. To the slaveholder, those same people also represented property that could be sold or pledged, wealth on which planters, lenders, and states depended. Enslaved labor made the cotton South one of the world’s wealthiest agricultural regions, and expansion helped sustain the system: new plantations bought people sold from the Upper South, while new slave states could defend slavery in Congress. Slaveholders feared that shutting slavery out of the territories would diminish its value and political strength. Even Kansas, where cotton was not yet grown, could appear to them a question of survival.
From Causes of the American Civil War, chapter 2 of The American Civil War, 1840–1877 (JAN 1861).
The place: Lincoln elected — map and full story →
Teach this in 5 minutes
- Why it happened — Slavery as capital, not merely labor. A person enslaved in Virginia could be sold to a buyer in Mississippi or another area open to slavery. Demand from such markets sustained the value…
- The turn — 6 November 1860 — the election. Lincoln sought to bar slavery from the territories; his platform did not propose freeing enslaved people in the states. Nevertheless, his election…
- What it changed — Secession begins in the Deep South. The first state to leave was South Carolina. Six more cotton states followed between December and February, before Lincoln took office. The earliest…
Then ask the room: Was the Civil War “about” slavery, states’ rights, or economics — and is that even a well-formed question? The argued answer is on the chapter page →
The atlas that shows it
THE FREE PRINTABLE STUDY GUIDE
Get the printable study guide for The American Civil War free. I’ll send you a few short letters, then one when a new atlas opens. That’s all. — Paul
NO TRACKING · YOUR ADDRESS IS USED FOR THE DISPATCH AND NOTHING ELSE · UNSUBSCRIBE ANYTIME