The Big Apple in the Big Secession

Anyone who has ever spent more than 10 minutes in New York City knows the place is just a little bit different. It's like nowhere else actually. A different country some say. A different world even.

And according to a New York Times article this morning, this feeling has been around awhile. In the wake of South Carolina's secession from the Union in December 1860, many wondered what other Southern states would join the call for rebellion.

However, they had an unlikely ally in New York City -- biggest city in America at the time. In January 1861, Mayor Fernando Wood made a proposal to the city's Common Council to declare itself an independent city and sever its binds with a "venal and corrupt master" aka the United States of America.

Puts an entire new light on the idea for the war's reasoning doesn't it? New York City didn't have slaves nor was it asking for state's rights, but Wood was a Democrat who had run on a pro-Southern platform. Apparently, that was a big thing in New York City at the time. The reason was money. The vast majority of Southern cotton came through the city's port and that was a lot of money.

Wood's idea gained steamed through the next few months, but it came crashing down when the South opened fire on Fort Sumter in April 1861. The pro-Southern faction switched to a more nationalistic fervor.

New York likely would not have joined the war as a member of the Confederacy. However, it's secession would have drained Union coffers and also possibly created a second front if Union troops tried to take the island or at least block the port from Southern ships.

Brett Banter