Madness Rules the Hour: Charleston, 1860 and the Mania for War

From Lincoln's election to secession from the Union, this compelling history explains how South Carolina was swept into a cultural crisis at the heart of the Civil War.

"The tea has been thrown overboard — the revolution of 1860 has been initiated." — Charleston Mercury, November 8, 1860

In 1860, Charleston, South Carolina, embodied the combustible spirit of the South. No city was more fervently attached to slavery, and no city was seen by the North as a greater threat to the bonds barely ho...