Download The Border States

Definition: slave states supporting the union

The Border States came to be at the start of the American Civil War after the election of
Abraham Lincoln in 1860.

After Lincoln’s election the lower south immediately started seceding from the union;
Beginning with a convention held in South Carolina. With a unanimous vote on December 20,
1860 SC seceded from the union.

During the next to months the states of Mississippi, Florida, Alabama, Georgia, Louisiana, and
Texas adopted constitutions of secession. (President James Buchanan, in the last days of his
administration, declared that the federal government would not forcibly prevent the
secessions.)

In February 1861, the seceding states sent representatives to a convention in Montgomery,
Alabama. The convention adopted a provisional constitution and chose Jefferson Davis of
Mississippi as provisional president and Alexander Hamilton Stephens of Georgia as
provisional vice president.

A convention, on March 11, 1861, unanimously ratified a permanent constitution creating the
Confederate States of America.

Between December 30, 1860, and February 18, 1861, the Confederates had seized 11 federal forts
and arsenals from South Carolina to Texas and harassed Fort Sumter in Charleston, South
Carolina.

The number of states in the Confederacy was increased to 11 by the secession of Virginia in
April and of Arkansas and North Carolina in May, followed by Tennessee in June after the fall
of Fort Sumter.
Border States, name applied during the American Civil War (1861-1865)
to the slaveholding states adjoining the free states. The border states
were Delaware, Maryland, Kentucky, Virginia, and Missouri. The issue
of secession sharply divided their citizens, but only Virginia withdrew
from the Union . The western part of the state, however, declared its
independence from Virginia and was admitted to the Union as West
Virginia in 1863.
The problem of slavery in the border states preoccupied Lincoln. In the
spring of 1862, Lincoln tried to persuade the border states to abolish
slavery, instead of forcing them to. Congress then passed a resolution
offering federal compensation to states that voluntarily abolished slavery.
Facts
Lincolns Administration
regarded Kentucky,
Missouri, Maryland and
Delaware as border states
mainly on their
geographical location
and questionable loyalty.
These four states had
strong ties with both the
north and the south.
Slavery existed in all 4
states, but the
importance of slavery
diminished in Delaware
and Maryland as their
prewar economies
became increasingly
interwoven with the
North's.
Delaware
Delaware rejected an
invitation to join the
Confederacy early in
1861, and throughout
the war remained
loyal to the North.
Delaware mobilized
its industries to
provide supplies for
the Union Army;
despite some
Southern sentiments,
it never seriously
threatened to leave
the Union.
Maryland
Marylanders were much
more divided in their
sympathies, being distinctly
Southern in character and
they were attached to the
South by strong blood ties.
They resented radical
secessionists and
abolitionists alike as the
cause of hostilities, urging
recognition of the
Confederacy. The first blood
was spilled during the
Baltimore Riots in March
1861, and though the state
contributed substantially to
the war effort with men and
material, the Federal
government garrisoned
troops in the state as a
precautionary measure.
Kentucky
Believing Kentucky to be a buffer
zone, Governor Beriah Magoffin
refused the call for troops and
formally declared the states
neutrality. But the attempt proved
futile: both Union and
Confederate recruiters operated in
the state, with Kentuckians
serving on both sides. When
Confederate troops moved into
western Kentucky in Sept. 1861,
and Brig. Gen. U.S. Grant
occupied Paducah, the legislature
officially endorsed the Union.
Pro-South Magoffin established a
provisional government at
Russellville, ratified the
Confederate Constitution, and
Kentucky was admitted to the
Confederacy in November 1861.
The state, like Missouri, suffered
the tragedy of a war that pitted
father against son, brother against
brother.
Missouri
Missouri attempted
neutrality after delegates
at a secession convention
,in February 1861 refused
to secede. Federal
invasion in May pushed
many Unionists into the
Confederate camp, and
as in Kentucky, proUnion and proConfederate
governments were
established. Missouri
became a Confederate
state November, 1861. Its
thriving prewar economy
was devastated and its
people were terrorized
by brutal guerrilla
warfare.
The border states represented a serious dilemma for President Lincoln.
Convinced they were the key to victory, he could not afford to alienate
them with his emancipation policies, thus incurred the scorn of Radicals
by failing to abolish border-state slavery until the 13th Amendment, passed
in 1865. The federal troops in the Western border states had to protect the
occupied territory from Confederate invaders. Soldiers also policed the
polls to protect loyal Unionists during wartime elections. Though the
border states remained pro-Union, even the severely divided Kentucky and
Missouri, put aside their issues in the effort to nurture their loyalty. These
struggles however weighed heavily on Lincoln's overall plan to win the war.
White
Slave
Free Black
Total
Delaware
90,589
1,798
19,829
112,216
Kentucky
919,484
225,483
10,684
1,155,651
Maryland
515,918
87,189
83,942
687,049
Missouri
1,063,489
114,931
3,572
1,181,992
Total
2,589,480
429,401
118,027
3,136,908
 http://www.civilwarhome.com/borderstates.htm
 http://www.sewanee.edu/faculty/Willis/Civil_War/tables/BorderPop18
60.html
 www.wikipedia.com
 Liberty Equality Power A History of the American People Third
Edition
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