2023
Chapter
When Democracy Breaks

The U.S. Secession Crisis as a Breakdown of Democracy

By: Dean Grodzins and David Moss

Abstract

This chapter examines the U.S. secession crisis of 1860–1861 as a case of democratic breakdown. From December 1860 to early June 1861, eleven of the fifteen slaveholding states in the U.S. South declared secession from the Union. The trigger for the crisis was Abraham Lincoln’s victory in the presidential election of November 1860. Many Southerners rejected the outcome of the election as intolerable. Together, the seceding states tried to form a new, proslavery nation, the Confederate States of America (CSA). They went to war with the United States to win their independence, only to be completely defeated within four years. The death toll from the war was approximately 750,000 (on both sides). Importantly, the war also led to the emancipation of four million enslaved Americans.

Keywords

War; History; Political Elections; United States

Citation

Grodzins, Dean, and David Moss. "The U.S. Secession Crisis as a Breakdown of Democracy." In When Democracy Breaks: Studies in Democratic Erosion and Collapse, from Ancient Athens to the Present Day, edited by Archon Fung, David Moss, and Odd Arne Westad. Oxford University Press, forthcoming.