South Carolina and other states secede

After the election of 1860, when President Lincoln became a threat to the south, South Carolina decided to secede from the Union on December 20,1860. South Carolina was the first of many states to secede; by February first of 1861, six more states followed South Carolina and seceded, these states were in the lower south - Texas, Louisiana, Mississippi, Alabama, Georgia, and Florida. Southerners thought that the secession was a Revolutionary tradition and they believed that they were fighting for American Rights. Shortly after the following states seceded, the Confederate States of America and Jefferson Davis became the president of the Confederacy. Although the South was on it own, a few islands off of the coast of Florida remained Americans property. These islands include Fort Sumter in Charleston Harbor and Fort Pickens in Pensacola Harbor. After the Battle of Fort Sumter the upper Southern states seceded. These states include: Virginia, Arkansas, North Carolina, and Tennessee. As more and more southern states began to secede and the further the nation divided, the civil war inched closer. The secession of the following states contributed to the Civil War because  it caused the separation of the North and the South to be physical.