Site of Speeches - Secession Hill, Abbeville, SC
Posted by: 
jhuoni
N 34° 10.724 W 082° 22.472
17S E 373326 N 3782827
Located at Secession Hill Park in Abbeville, SC. It was at this site on November 22, 1860, a large gathering (2,000 to 3,000 people) massed to launch South Carolina's secession from the Union.
Waymark Code: WMMD3D
Location: South Carolina, United States
Date Posted: 09/02/2014
Views: 3
A plaque on the rock simply reads:
This stone
marks the spot
where the
first secession
speeches
were made.
Nearby, South Carolina Historical Marker "Secession Hill 1-14", tells the whole story:
On November 22, 1860, a mass meeting on this site was one of the first held in the South after Abraham Lincoln’s election as president on November 6. A procession from the town square, numbering 2,000 to 3,000, made its way to a grove here, near the Greenville & Columbia RR depot. Many in the crowd wore palmetto cockades as bands played, militia and volunteer companies marched with flags and banners, and some units even fired cannon salutes.
Andrew G. Magrath, arguing “the time for action has arrived,” was typical of most speakers, who called for South Carolina’s immediate secession from the Union. The meeting passed resolutions urging secession and recommended delegates to represent Abbeville District at the Secession Convention in December. This hill, then known as “Magazine Hill” for a powder magazine here, was soon renamed “Secession Hill” and has been known by that name since 1860.