The Civil War’s Surprising, and Alarmingly Familiar, Origins

The story of how a small band of slave-owning extremists was able to hijack American politics, divide the country, and start the Civil War might surprise you. Secession was not a broad popular movement at first. While white supremacy was ingrained in society, only a small percentage of Southerners actually owned slaves—some 316,000 slave owners out of 5.6 million Southern whites, according to the 1860 census. Southern politicians never dared to put the decision to break apart the Union to a popular vote, because in most Southern states, they likely would have lost. In 1860, the secessionist candidate Breckinridge lost… Read Full Article