“And yet, faced with a violent rebellion and the loss of those markets the northern states managed to survive and even recover. Imagine that.”
Some choose to start a war when faced with failure.
You are referring, of course, to the failure of Deep South secessionists in early 1861 to convince their Upper South & Border State brethren to quit the Union and join their Confederacy.
Faced with abject failure in just seven Confederate states, and needing a solid excuse for others to join, Jefferson Davis ordered a military assault on Union troops in Union Fort Sumter, thus giving the Upper South, especially Virginia, what it needed to secede.
Fort Sumter turned Confederate abject failure into much greater success, almost enough to win independence through war.
But not quite enough, since Border States remained loyal to the United States, and that's what made ultimate Confederate failure inevitable.