This thesis examines the role of conspiracy theories in Virginia’s debates over secession in the critical months prior to the Civil War. As the largest of the fifteen slave states and home to many of the nation’s founders, Virginia’s decision on secession had far-reaching implications. Elected by Virginians to a special convention to consider Virginia’s relationship with the federal government, delegates met in Richmond from early February to mid-April 1861. At issue was the question of secession in response to perceived threats to slavery from President-elect Abraham Lincoln and his Republican Party. In these debates proponents of disunion peddled conspiracy theories. According to secessionists, shadowy forces, whether they be the Republican Party, abolitionists, or enslaved African Americans, were plotting to violently destroy slavery and the South. To prevent this apocalyptic vision from coming to fruition, argued secessionists, Virginia must sever its ties with the Union. Moderate unionists at the convention struggled to downplay the exaggerated and often fraudulent claims made by their radical counterparts while also vowing to protect slavery. Some secessionists went so far as to launch their own conspiracies to overthrow the state government and seize federal military installations. This thesis seeks to understand how conspiracies in Virginia’s political discourse over secession helped carry the largest and most important slaveholding state into the new Confederacy and highlight how secessionists used distortions to unite white southerners in defense of slavery.