Does a State have the right to secede?

[Thomas Thorne]

Like virtually every other society in the western world of the period of the Civil War, the South believed in the subordination of the African, but could not conceive of such subordination without the institution of slavery. It is striking how often Southerners argued that the only alternative to slavery was complete freedom and social equality for blacks, completely ignoring how comparatively successfully Northern society was able to function without either slavery or equality for persons of color.

This belief mixed in with the fear that a Republican administration would facilitate servile insurrections marks a departure from the norm of independence movements which obsessed on historical injuries rather than potential ones.
Tom