Secession, Part 1 | Palmetto Special

The program on "Secession" is divided into two parts, each approximately 18 minutes in length. The five main characters, William, Allen, Jenny, Missy, and Allen's father are fictitious. The political characters portrayed are real. They include Congressman William Porcher Miles, Congressman John Ashmore, Congressman Boyce, James L. Orr, Congressman John McQueen, Lawrence M. Keitt, and Benjamin F Perry.

The story begins in 1858 in South Carolina. William Taylor's cousin Allen is visiting from Connecticut. Secession "fever" is rapidly engulfing the state. Preston Brooks' "caning" of Charles Sumner had occurred the previous year. The scene shifts to West Point, New York, where the cousins have been accepted as cadets. William finds the "politics of the day" there to be "slavery and sectionalism." Abraham Lincoln is just coming on the scene in his Senate race with Stephen Douglas in Illinois.

The story is again picked up in South Carolina in the summer of 1860. The National Democratic Convention met in Charleston, but due to the strong political feelings of the day, adjourned without completing its business. Politics is the topic of the summer of 1860. Allen and William attend a reception where a number of prominent South Carolina politicos are gathered. For the most part, they are discussing how secession should occur, not if it was a good idea.

Returning to West Point in the fall of 1860, Allen realizes the situation in South Carolina is rapidly moving toward secession. He knows that he will soon be forced to make a decision concerning his position at West Point. Returning to Columbia in December 1860 for a short Christmas break, Allen finds the Secession convention in session at the First Baptist Church in Columbia. He accompanies his father, who is a delegate, to the railroad station when the convention adjourns to Charleston. When the Ordinance of Secession is formally adopted in Charleston on December 20,1860. Allen makes his decision.

Standards

• 3-4 The student will demonstrate an understanding of life in the antebellum period, the causes and effects of the Civil War, and the impact of Reconstruction in South Carolina.
  • South Carolina played a key role in events that occurred before, during, and after the Civil War; and those events, in turn, greatly affected the state. To understand South Carolina’s experiences during this tumultuous time, the student will uti...
    • 3-4.3 Explain the reasons for South Carolina’s secession from the Union, including the abolitionist movement and the concept of states’ rights.
• This indicator was developed to encourage inquiry into how land acquisition and the resulting border changes of the U.S. impacted the people of the western territories prior to Westward Expansion.
  • This indicator was developed to encourage inquiry into how the debate surrounding the expansion of enslaved labor versus free labor influenced the development of sectionalism. This indicator was also developed to foster inquiry into the growth of the ...
• This indicator was developed to encourage inquiry into the continuities and changes experienced by Americans of various genders, positions, races, and social status during the Civil War.
  • This indicator was developed to encourage inquiry into how debates over slavery led to the Civil War.
• 8-4 The student will demonstrate an understanding of the multiple events that led to the Civil War.
  • The outbreak of the Civil War was the culminating event in a decades-long series of regional issues that threatened American unity and South Carolina’s identity as one of the United States. To understand how South Carolina came to be at the cent...
    • 8-4.4 Evaluate the arguments of unionists, cooperationists, and secessionists on the issues of states’ rights and slavery and the ways that these arguments contributed to South Carolina’s secession.
• This indicator was designed to encourage inquiry into the continuities and changes of the experiences of marginalized groups such as African Americans, Native Americans and women, as the U.S. expanded westward and grappled with the development of new states.
  • This indicator was developed to encourage inquiry into the debates, heightened by Westward Expansion, over federal and state power concerning slavery, and the government’s role in protecting and securing natural rights.