Secession Hill

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This small park in downtown Abbeville played a big role in the Civil War. In fact Abbeville calls itself the “Birthplace of the Confederacy,” maintaining that secession took its first official step right here.

This monument (shown above and below) marks the site where, on November 22, 1860, citizens gathered to listen to speeches by leaders of South Carolina’s secession movement and elect local delegates to South Carolina’s secession convention. Just over three weeks later, on December 17, 1860, South Carolina’s delegates unanimously voted to leave the Union, a move followed in short order by the rest of the slave states. These states combined to form a new nation, the Confederate States of America.

The following sign details the names of the speakers and nominees. It reads:

One of the first organized mass meetings held here on November 22, 1660, to launch South Carolina’s secession from the Union. Judge A. G. Magrath of Charleston, urged “immediate action on the part of South Carolina at any & every hazard”, followed by Gen. M. L. Bonham, Cong. McGowan, Major Armistead Burt & others. Resolutions unanimously adopted favoring secession of the State. Committee of Twenty appointed [five] nominees[:] Edward Noble, John A. Calhoun, Thomas Thomson, John H. Wilson & D. L. Wardlaw to attend December 17, 1860 Convention [in Columbia]. One month later, South Carolina became the first state to secede.

Secession Hill: More Pictures

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