Why did the Confederacy start a war over their secession?

The Repiblicans had a plan for ending slavery peacefully, it was to limit slavery to its current confines, bring in new territories as free states, and eventually get the votes to pass some sort of emancipation or manumission act in the not so distant future. There were 34 states at the start of the Civil War, 19 free and 15 slave. read more

It's not as if the Confederacy actively invaded Northern states to start the war. Naturally, the Union had other ideas, namely that a massive insurrection was seizing state assets and creating its army from a nucleus of defectors, and that attacking Union soldiers, whatever their reason, was an unjustified assault on the soldiers of their country. read more

Every state in the Confederacy issued an “Article of Secession” declaring their break from the Union. Four states went further. Texas, Mississippi, Georgia and South Carolina all issued additional documents, usually referred to as the “Declarations of Causes," which explain their decision to leave the Union. read more

Secession, as it applies to the outbreak of the American Civil War, comprises the series of events that began on December 20, 1860, and extended through June 8 of the next year when eleven states in the Lower and Upper South severed their ties with the Union. read more