SMARTWRITER ONLY

Mississippi Secession

Student Name: Ralph Graham

Institution Affiliation: Ole Miss

Course: His 330 The History of Mississippi Sec 2

Date: September 23, 2013

Historians still debate the reasons which made Mississippi, as well as, her sister southern states opt to secede from the United States. State’s rights, along with high tariffs are some of the issues which are considered to be the main reasons which made Mississippi to secede from U.S but the ultimate reason which made the state to secede from the union was the defense of the slavery institution . A Declaration from the state convention held on January 1861 to discuss the issue of secession states that “Our position is basically identified with the slavery institution-which is the world’ greatest material interest” (McDowell & McDowell, 2007). –paragraphs should be 4-8 sentences long. Also, the quote you use is found in the reading. Lastly, the thesis statement (the one I highlighted above) should be the last sentence of your introduction.

The 1850 compromise angered the Mississippians. Mississippians had strongly supported the American-Mexican war because they hoped to gain new slave territory, but the compromise would exclude them from reaping benefits from their concerted efforts. In addition, the Mississippians viewed the entry of California, New Mexico along with Utah as free states as a threat to the significant balance within free and slaves states.—Examples from the documents in the reading are needed.

The 1854 Kansa-Nebraska Act was part of the territorial issues which pushed Mississippi towards secession. The aforementioned Act considered the solution to the ambiguous slavery question to be ‘popular sovereignty’. In respect to the “popular sovereignty” the individuals of the territories, prior to making an application for statehood, would make the decision to allow or not allow slavery.

The said solution made the abolitionist invade the area. The said Act did not impress the Mississippians because they believed that there was no way the Congress would prevent the introduction of slavery within the various territories. The Mississippians were greatly angered by Senator Stephen Douglas who was the author of the bill which led to the implementation of the Kansa-Nebraska Act (Bond, 2003). –page numbers are needed for citations. In addition, the paper needs to focus exclusively on the primary source documents (the non-italicized stuff)

The other event which is considered to have compelled Mississippi to opt for seceding from U.S was the 1859 John Brown’s Raid. Brown who was an abolitionist ho was violent, organized a raid in the Harper’s Ferry federal arsenal in the hope of inciting and arming a slave uprising within the South. However, the raid failed and at last Brown was captured, tried, as well as, hung due to his crimes. Brown’s raid increased the slave revolts fears. The Mississippi parliament implemented several resolutions advising the other sates within the south to oppose antislavery aggression.

Finally, the November 1860 election of Abraham Lincoln as the president actually pushed almost all the advocates of secession to the edge. This is due to the fact that the Lincoln’s Republican Party had made a pledge to fully restrict slavery (Bond, 2003). In that regard, the Mississippians considered the Lincoln’s election as a sure sign that slavery abolishment was imminent.

In general, it can be concluded that Mississippi’s secessionist’s journey was similar to that of numerous other southern states. Secessionist sentiment not only ebbed but also flowed until events basically got out of control. Passion, pride in addition to ego outclassed logic, as well as, rationality as Mississippians eventually felt that the only way they would preserve slavery along with their preferred way of life was through secession.

While this paper does a nice job highlighting the national context for secession, it does not examine the documents in the reading. This is purpose of the assignment. In addition, additional editing is needed to improve the quality of the writing. Work on eliminating unnecessary words. Note my corrections above for tips on how this can be done.

Grade: D

References

Bond, B. G. (2003). Mississippi: A documentary history. Jackson: University Press of Mississippi.

McDowell, G. D., & McDowell, R. A. (2007). Mississippi Secrets: Facts, legends, and folklore. Lincoln, Neb.: iUniverse.

�This sentence is way too long and verbose. A better one is:

“Although states’ rights and high tariffs contributed to secession, protecting slavery was the ultimate reason.”

Same thing in far fewer words.