ABSTRACT
Contrary to standard accounts, the birthplace of American secessionist sentiment was not Charleston, South Carolina in 1860, but the heart of the New England Yankee culture—Salem, Massachusetts—more than half a century before the first shot was fired at Fort Sumter. New England clerics, who were extremely influential, likened Jefferson to Beelzebub, and talked of a "moral putrefication that covers the land" because of Jefferson's ascent to the presidency. To the Federalists, Jefferson was not just a political opponent who had defeated them; he was the personification of evil. The Federalists also believed strongly that homogeneity of race, and "ethnic purity," were essential ingredients of a successful republic. The embargo rekindled the fires of secession that had been cooled by the Hamilton–Burr episode. The Federalists commenced planning a convention that they hoped would lead to the creation of a northern confederacy.
