Many Southerners were outraged by Lincoln's election.
Although he hadn't proposed banning slavery, they believed he would do so. In December,
1860, South Carolina became the first state to secede from the Union It was quickly
followed by Alabama, Mississippi, Florida, Georgia, and Louisiana. These states
formed a separate nation: the Confederate States of America. Jefferson Davis was
named president. (Five more states - Texas, Virginia, North Carolina, Tennessee,
and Arkansas - later joined the Confederacy.) Feelings were so strong that
Lincoln received death threats and had to travel in secrecy to Washington, D.C.,
for his inauguration on March 4, 186l. (Grolier Book of Knowledge Encyclopedia)
