By the time slavery was outlawed in the British empire, the industries of tobacco, rice, and cotton had quickly expanded in the south of the United States, where slavery was central to the economy. The process of legal abolition of slavery remained gradual, varying from state to state: New York abolished slavery in 1827, Rhode Island in 1842, Pennsylvania in 1847, and Connecticut only in 1848. Although New Jersey legally abolished slavery in 1846, newly freed slaves became apprentices for life. Consequently, they only obtained free status when slavery was eventually abolished in the United States two decades later (Gigantino, 2015, pp. 214-215).  
By 1850, the division between free states and slave states became clear: slaveholding states were willing to fight to keep slavery alive. When Lincoln was elected president of the United States in November 1860, the abolitionist movement had been established in the country for almost a century. Additionally, the number of states where slavery had been abolished exceeded the number of slave states. Still, during the presidential election campaign, southerners stepped up the call for secession because despite Lincoln's moderate positions regarding slavery, he was not a representative of the southern planters and slave owners.  
In December 1860, the South Carolina General Assembly issued a proclamation announcing its secession from the United States, an action it justified by the growing hostility on the part of the free states to the institution of slavery. During the four months following South Carolina's secession, Georgia, Florida, Alabama, Mississippi, Texas, and Louisiana announced their separation from the Union, forming the Confederate States of America. Although Lincoln sought to appease the southerners by promising not to interfere in the states where slavery existed, the country was too divided to be soothed. Five weeks after his inauguration, the Civil War exploded. In the three months that