Fire-Eaters
Antebellum America pro-slavery Southern secessionist movement / From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
For the stage act, see Fire eating.
In American history, the Fire-Eaters were a group of pro-slavery Democrats in the antebellum South who urged the separation of Southern states into a new nation, which became the Confederate States of America. The dean of the group was Robert Rhett of South Carolina. Some sought to revive America's participation in the Atlantic slave trade, which had been illegal since 1808.[1]