Why did the southerners, who had clearly less potential, become the initiators of the split in the United States and the beginning of the Civil War?

Without waiting for Lincoln to take over as president. On December 20, 1860, South Carolina announced its secession from the United States, and then another 10 states. February 4th. In 1861, the seceded states formed a slave state – the Confederate States of America (or. Confederation) with the capital in Richmond (Virginia). Its president was the large planter Jefferson Davis, the division of the country became a fact, and this, in fact, meant a declaration of war on the federal government. On April 12-13, South Carolina troops fired on and captured Fort Sumter, located on the territory of the state, which remained loyal to the Union – this is how the United States was commonly called in those years without the seceding southern states. The Civil War began – the worst national tragedy in the history of the United States. The economic and human potential of the Union was much greater than that of the Confederation. By the beginning of the war, 22 million people lived in the North and West, and only 9 million people lived in the South, of which 3.5 million were Negro slaves.