Video: '20th December 1860: South Carolina secedes from the United States of America'

(Thursday, December 20, 1860, 1:15 p.m. local time; six weeks after the 1860 United States presidential election) — 44 days after Abraham Lincoln’s victory in the presidential election of 1860 on a platform opposing the expansion of slavery into the western territories, South Carolina became the first state to secede from the Union today as all 169 delegates to a special convention in Charleston voted in favor of separation.

By February, six more cotton states would follow (Mississippi, Florida, Alabama, Georgia, Louisiana and Texas), forming the Confederate States of America.

Video: 'Ken Burns’ Civil War, ep1 part 2-3' (South Carolina secedes at 26:56)