Let's not forget the original question, here: How much opposition was there
to secession in the South, especially among non-slaveholders?

It's important to keep focused on the question and on the calendar. Remember
this old story? During the war a Union soldier asked a Confederate soldier
why he was fighting against the United States Army, and the Confederate
soldier answered, "Because you're here."

Well, that exchange could have taken place only after fighting began, and it
can't be adduced as a cause for secession or for the war.

Wars start for a variety of reasons. People fight in them for a variety of
reasons, and some of those reasons are very different from the reasons why
the war started. Once the Civil War began, many of the reasons that
motivated people during the winter of 1860-1861 no longer obtained.

That may make the original question the more important.

By the way: the Virginia Convention of 1861, after it adopted an Ordinance
of Secession, submitted the question of secession to a popular referendum,
which took place in May 1861, by which time secession had become so popular
that it was overwhelmingly approved in most of the parts of Virginia that
are still Virginia. In some parts of Virginia that became West Virginia the
vote was close, in some parts of Virginia that became West Virginia
secession was soundly rejected, and in some parts of Virginia that became
West Virginia secession was so unpopular that virtually nobody even
dignified the referendum on secession enough to vote, or if they voted the
results weren't sent to Richmond for tabulation. So maybe we should keep the
map in mind as well as the calendar.

Another $0.02 worth (still U.S. currency) from
Brent Tarter
The Library of Virginia
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