Abraham Lincoln was elected the President of United States in 1860, and this propelled anxiety and fear in the minds of the southern states who believed that the government will pass laws that will dampen their economy and the 'southern way of life.' This was primarily because of the reason that northerners hadn't too much at stake in the institution of slavery. Their economy chiefly depended on industries and factories. South, on the other hand, depended on slaves heavily for their work. The plantations of indigo, tobacco, rice, and cotton (after the invention of cotton gin) required hard labor and the slaves were made to work for long hours so that profit was maximized.
Many people believe that the Civil War was about North's struggle to emancipate the slaves and South's fight to continue the slave trade. However, it should be remembered that the North did not go to war to emancipate the slaves, instead Abraham Lincoln, before becoming the President had explicitly stated that his aim wasn't to abolish slavery, but to contain its spread. However, the southern states (none of which had voted for Abraham Lincoln) believed that the election of Abraham Lincoln was detrimental to their economy, and hence, there was no other option than secession.
South Carolina was the first state to declare secession from the United States in 1861. Other southern states which had considerable stake in the slave labor soon followed suit and seceded from the Union. These were Mississippi, Georgia, Alabama, Florida, Louisiana, and Texas. These states came to be known as the Confederate States.
The event that precipitated the Civil War was the aggression at Fort Sumter (a fort in the Southern State of South Carolina) by the Confederacy. This prompted Abraham Lincoln to call 75,000 volunteers to help the Union in fighting the Confederate States. As the skirmish was heading to become a full-fledged war, four more southern states seceded and joined the Confederacy. These were the states of Virginia, Arkansas, Tennessee, and North Carolina. These eleven states fought against the twenty-three states of the Union, and thus began America's bloodiest war which left over 620,000 people dead.
