Historedia
Episode 1 of 2

Adoption of Secession Ordinance

When
December 20, 1860
Where
State of South Carolina
Part of
South Carolina becomes the first state to secede from the United States

The South Carolina secession convention unanimously voted to secede from the Union on December 20, 1860.

The convention adopted an ordinance announcing the state's withdrawal from the Union. This action made South Carolina the first slave state in the South to declare its secession, following the election of Abraham Lincoln.

Sources

  1. South Carolina Declaration of Secession Wikipedia, revision of 2026-09-01
  2. American Civil War Wikipedia, revision of 2026-09-24
  3. South Carolina in the American Civil War Wikipedia, revision of 2026-08-17

Machine-drafted from the cited Wikipedia passages and checked by a reviewing model, not by a human editor. Every passage cites the revision it was written from; dates and places follow those passages.