Secessionists

The tag "Secessionists" refer to those Americans who supported leaving the Union and establishing an independent Confederate nation. States both North and South had threatened to secede from the United States throughout the nation's history, particularly in New England in 1814 and South Carolina in 1832. However, building tensions between abolitionists and enslavers in the North and South saw an increase in the frequency and fervor of secession threats emanating from southern states in the 1850s. The election of Republican Abraham Lincoln to the presidency in November 1860 provided the impetus many states needed to justify secession. Citing perceived threats to the institution of chattel slavery, on December 20, 1860, South Carolina left the Union, followed by six more lower-South states (Georgia, Florida, Alabama, Mississippi, Texas and Louisiana) over the next four months.

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Letter from A. B. Dilworth to Mississippi Governor John J. Pettus; January 24, 1861
Letter from Jacob Thompson to Mississippi Governor John J. Pettus; February 25, 1861
Letter from William G. Lampkin to Mississippi Governor John J. Pettus; May 28, 1861
Letter to Mississippi Governor John J. Pettus; April 17, 1862
Letter from W. A. Champlain to Mississippi Governor John Jones Pettus; May 23, 1862
Letter from W. D. Lyles to Mississippi Governor William L. Sharkey; July 26, 1865
Letter from R. R. Fitzhugh to Mississippi Governor John J. Pettus; July 1, 1861
Letter from Gus H. Wilcox to Mississippi Governor John J. Pettus; November 4, 1862
Letter from J. H. Hammersly to Mississippi Governor John J. Pettus; November 16, 1862
Letter from John McAulis to Mississippi Governor John J. Pettus; April 10, 1863
Letter from Joseph T. Randolph to Mississippi Governor John J. Pettus; April 13, 1863
Letter from Ira McDowell to Colonel Otto Funke, referred to Mississippi Governor William L. Sharkey; June 1865
Letter from St. H. Chalmers to Mississippi Governor William L. Sharkey; June 23, 1865
Letter from C. B. New to Mississippi Governor William L. Sharkey; July 1, 1865
Letter from Mrs. A. N. Edmonds to Mississippi Governor William L. Sharkey; July 1, 1865
Letter from Dan R. Russell to Mississippi Governor William L. Sharkey; July 5, 1865
Letters from William Hemingway and G. A. Wells; July 13, 1865
Letter from John M. Grant to Mississippi Governor William L. Sharkey; July 15, 1865
Letter from William M. Pollan to Mississippi Governor William L. Sharkey; July 18, 1865
Letter from William M. Pollan to Mississippi Governor William L. Sharkey; July 20, 1865
Letter from A. B. Daniel, L. L. Griffin, and H. M. Roberts to Mississippi Governor William L. Sharkey; July 20, 1865
Letter from H. J. Harris to Mississippi Governor William L. Sharkey; July 22, 1865
Letter from W. D. Lyles to Mississippi Governor William L. Sharkey; July 26, 1865
Letter from Captain H. C. Moore to Mississippi Governor William L. Sharkey; September 23, 1865
Letter from J. R. McLaurin to Mississippi Governor James L. Alcorn; January 31, 1871