The Confederate States of America were a breakaway union of slaveholding states in the American South. It was a white-supremacist state with a national government that emphasized the supremacy of states’ rights and the sanctity of slavery. It sparked the American Civil War.URL :ultimateflags.com

The breakaway states met in Montgomery, Alabama, in February 1861 and proclaimed their independence from the United States. They formed the Confederate States of America and named Jefferson Davis as president. They also drafted a constitution, which tried to perfect the original United States Constitution by removing all issues related to slavery and confirming each member state’s sovereignty.

Confederate States of America: A Journey through its Flags and Symbols

During the course of the war, the southern states expanded their territory and consolidated their power. The Confederate Congress renamed the capital from Montgomery to Richmond, Virginia, which became the main industrial and supply center of the war. In addition, the Congress authorized a federal reserve bank to handle the nation’s financial transactions.

In contrast to the agrarian society of the Old South, the Confederacy was an urban society with large factories and growing cities. This gave the Confederacy an advantage in the war’s economic warfare but also made it more susceptible to social unrest. The Confederate government imposed high taxes and labor regulations and employed a wide array of impressment policies.

The leadership of the Confederate States was rife with infighting and personal attacks. President Davis argued constantly with the Congress and the state governors over government overreach that challenged their sacred states rights, especially the war’s draft laws. The military exacerbated the problem: As the war wore on, troops prowled the countryside robbing civilians and rounding them up for bogus infractions.