BleuHistory Vol. 6: The Confederacy | Aurora Homeschool Academy

This volume documents: The Confederate declarations of secession, written by Confederate founders in their own words. The Mississippi Declaration (January 1861) and Confederate Vice President Alexander Stephens' Cornerstone Speech (March 1861) document exactly what the Civil War was fought over — not states' rights, not tariffs, but slavery. The BleuHistory standard: let the Confederacy speak for itself.

Background context: Mississippi was the second state to secede (January 9, 1861), three months before the first shots were fired at Fort Sumter (April 12, 1861). This timing is documented evidence that the war began over secession, and the declarations document that secession was explicitly over slavery. Confederate VP Alexander Stephens called slavery the "cornerstone" of the new Confederate government in a speech in Savannah, Georgia on March 21, 1861 — six weeks before the war began.

The Document Says

Mississippi Declaration of Secession, January 9, 1861

Available at the Avalon Project, Yale Law School (avalon.law.yale.edu) and the National Archives.

"Our position is thoroughly identified with the institution of slavery — the greatest material interest of the world... a blow at slavery is a blow at commerce and civilization."

Cornerstone Speech

Alexander Stephens, Confederate Vice President, March 21, 1861

Savannah, Georgia. Available at the Avalon Project, Yale Law School (avalon.law.yale.edu).

"Our new government is founded upon exactly the opposite idea; its foundations are laid, its cornerstone rests, upon the great truth that the negro is not equal to the white man; that slavery — subordination to the superior race — is his natural and normal condition. This, our new government, is the first, in the history of the world, based upon this great physical, philosophical, and moral truth."

The Four Questions: (1) Who wrote it? (2) When? (3) What does it say? (4) Why does it matter? Use specific words from the document in every answer.

Q1 — Who wrote it?
The Mississippi state government. What economic interest did the authors have in maintaining slavery? What does their position — elected officials of a state — document about slavery as a political institution?

Q2 — When?
January 9, 1861 — before Fort Sumter in April 1861. What does the timing document about the cause of the war? Why does it matter that this was written before a single battle?

Q3 — What does it say?
What does "material interest" mean? What does "blow at commerce and civilization" reveal about how Mississippi understood its economy? Now compare: what does Stephens call the "cornerstone" of the Confederacy?

Q4 — Why does it matter?
These documents are the Confederacy's own stated cause. What do they tell you about claims that the Civil War was about "states' rights" or "tariffs" rather than slavery? What does documented evidence look like compared to interpretation?

Write one paragraph: Make a claim about what the Civil War was fought over. Cite both primary sources as evidence. Explain the connection (warrant).

What does this primary source document that a textbook's description of the same event would not?

Access the Avalon Project (avalon.law.yale.edu). Find the declaration of secession from one additional Confederate state. Write one sentence from it here and apply Question 3: