The election victory of President Abraham Lincoln in 1860 was well received by everyone. He had won the election without any support from the south wants they now felt vulnerable. The dwellers of the South were against the policies of the Republican Party who were under the leadership of Lincoln. This was because a majority of the supporters of the Republican Party were against slavery while the economy of the South was mainly supported by slavery. Lincoln's strong personal stance on slavery led a section of the population to believe that part of his agenda would be to abolish slavery. The hardliners who did not want to have their way of life disrupted then put measures in place to protect themselves (Calomiris & Pritchett, 2016).
Lincoln intended to keep the Union intact at all costs. For this, he was willing to allow the states that supported and practiced slavery to continue as they were. He, however, preferred to stop the spread of slavery to other states. The Southerners did not trust Lincoln's intentions, so they organized themselves into seven states that agreed to secede from the union. The power that the Union held could not be underestimated by the southerners. The Southerners feared that if more free states joined the Union, then the Union would be in a position to fight and abolish slavery for all (Tindall & Shi, 2016).
Delegate your assignment to our experts and they will do the rest.
The initial decision for the seven states to leave was aimed at weakening the union. The states were no longer under the docket and restrictions so they could uphold slavery without any restrictions. Furthermore, they could unite and operate as a unit instead of the minority position they expected within the union. The ceded southern states formed the Confederacy which even began their army. Here they continued to carry out their economic activities while practicing slavery until it was finally abolished many years late
References
Calomiris, C. W., " Pritchett, J. (2016). Betting on secession: Quantifying political events surrounding slavery and the civil war. The American Economic Review , 106 (1), 1-23.
Tindall, G. B., " Shi, D. E. (2016). America: A narrative history . WW Norton " Company.
