Alexander Stephens, vice president of the Confederacy, used his Corner-Stone Speech to defend the institution of slavery, illustrating the depth of the division between North and South that sparked the eruption of the Civil War. Speaking before fellow members of the Confederate States of America on March 21, 1861, in Savannah, Georgia, Stephens delivered a robust defense of the institution of slavery as central to the identity, prosperity, and values of the South of the past, present and future alike. Stephens delivered his address early in 1861, in the wake of the secession of the original seven states through which it was established: South Carolina, Mississippi, Florida, Alabama, Georgia, Louisiana, and Texas. By the end of that year, the Confederacy included eleven states: the initial seven along with Virginia, North Carolina, Arkansas, and Tennessee.