Key People:

Jefferson Davis – former Mississippi Senator, chosen as provisional president . At first he did not want the presidency, but a sense of duty led him to accept. Traveling to Montgomery, Alabama proved to be difficult due to the fact there were no direct railroad connections. He arrived on February 16th, 1861. Two days later, February 18th, 1861, he gave his inaugural address.

Jefforson Davis was a former Mississippi Senator when he was chosen to be the president of the newly seceded nation. At first he didnt want the presidency but he accepted eventually.

Key Events:

Secession of the South – On December 20,1860, soon after Abraham Lincoln’s election as president, South Carolina became the first state to secede. Mississippi, Florida, Alabama, Georgia, Louisiana, and Texas followed quickly. In response to the fall of Fort Sumterin April 1861, Lincoln called on the remaining states to supply soldiers to put down the southern rebellion. Rather than comply, Virginia, North Carolina, Tennessee, and Arkansas seceded and joined the Confederacy. The event is extremely significant because the secession of the southern states along with Lincoln’s determination to hold the Union t0gether, resulted in the Civil War.

When the Southern States succeded from the Union, the Nation was devided as such. The South were slave states, and the North were free states.