The Confederate States of America (CSA) was a government formed in 1861 by eleven southern U.S. states that declared secession from the United States of America. The Confederacy existed from 4 February 1861, when delegates from six states convened in Montgomery, Alabama, to adopt a provisional constitution, until its military collapse in the spring of 1865. At its greatest extent, it comprised South Carolina, Mississippi, Florida, Alabama, Georgia, Louisiana, Texas, Virginia, Arkansas, Tennessee, and North Carolina, with a population of roughly nine million, including approximately 3.5 million enslaved people. Jefferson Davis of Mississippi served as president throughout the Confederacy's existence, and Richmond, Virginia, served as its capital from May 1861 onward. The CSA maintained its own constitution, currency, military, and diplomatic apparatus, though it was never recognized as a sovereign nation by any foreign government.
Tensions over the legal status of slavery in U.S. territories, tariff policy, and the scope of federal authority over the states had intensified through the antebellum decades. The election of Abraham Lincoln in November 1860, on a platform opposing the expansion of slavery, prompted South Carolina to secede in December 1860, followed by six more states before Lincoln's inauguration in March 1861. The Confederate constitution closely mirrored the U.S. Constitution but explicitly protected the institution of slavery in member states and territories, limited the central government's power to impose protective tariffs, and restricted the Confederate Congress's ability to appropriate funds for internal improvements. After the fall of Fort Sumter in April 1861 and Lincoln's call for troops, four additional states - Virginia, Arkansas, Tennessee, and North Carolina - joined the Confederacy. For a fuller treatment of the conflict that followed, see Confederate States of America - History.
The relative weight of slavery, states' rights, economic grievances, and regional identity in explaining secession is among the most debated questions in American historical scholarship. Confederate vice president Alexander Stephens, in his March 1861 “Cornerstone Speech,” stated that the preservation and perpetuation of slavery was the “cornerstone” of the new government. Several state secession declarations name the threat to slavery as an explicit cause. Historians who emphasize slavery as the primary cause point to these primary sources as dispositive. Others argue that constitutional disputes over federal power, tariff policy, and the rights of states predated and outlasted the slavery question, and that secession cannot be reduced to a single cause. The question of how these factors relate to one another - and which was primary - is covered in Confederate States of America - Causes Debate.
The CSA fought the Union in the American Civil War from April 1861 to April-June 1865. The Confederate military, under commanders including Robert E. Lee, Thomas “Stonewall” Jackson, and Joseph E. Johnston, achieved significant early victories but faced mounting disadvantages in manpower, industrial capacity, and access to international credit and supply. The Emancipation Proclamation of 1 January 1863 reframed the Union war aims internationally, foreclosing meaningful British or French intervention on the Confederate side. Lee surrendered to Ulysses S. Grant at Appomattox Court House on 9 April 1865; remaining Confederate forces surrendered through June 1865. President Davis was captured on 10 May 1865 and imprisoned but never tried for treason. Reconstruction-era federal policy then governed the readmission of the former Confederate states to the Union.
How the Confederacy is remembered, commemorated, and interpreted in American public life remains a live controversy. Monuments to Confederate figures, the display of the Confederate battle flag, and the naming of public institutions after Confederate leaders have been sources of recurring public debate, particularly since the mid-twentieth century and with renewed intensity following the 2015 Charleston church shooting and the 2020 protests following the death of George Floyd. Supporters of Confederate commemoration often frame it as honoring regional heritage and the service of individual soldiers. Critics argue that much of the monumental infrastructure was erected during the Jim Crow era and the Civil Rights era as expressions of resistance to racial equality rather than as straightforward historical remembrance. These competing interpretations are addressed in Confederate States of America - Legacy Debate.
There is broad consensus among professional historians that the preservation of slavery was a central, explicitly stated cause of secession and the formation of the CSA. The relative weight of additional factors, the moral evaluation of Confederate actors, and the appropriate place of Confederate symbols in contemporary public life remain contested. See Confederate States of America - Historical Consensus.