why did Abraham Lincoln's election enrage the south?

Answer 1

Simple answer -- they thought ANY Republican Presdient would free the slaves to intermarry wreak havoc on them....

---------------

Interestingly, it was NOT directly because of anything he had done, or even anything he or his party had ever said they WOULD do.

Rather it was because they had convinced themselves that the whole Republican Party was REALLY planning to gain power and declare slavery abolished. THEN (they thought) the Republicans would push for all sorts of interracial mixing, and esp. interracial marriage ("miscegenation "). Many in the South were quite fearful of the consequences of freeing the large numbers of slaves they held. (Besides the racist fears I just mentioned, they feared --understandably-- that freed blacks might seek revenge on their former owners.)

This whole view is seen throughout the Southern Democratic literature from the founding of the Republican Party into the Civil War. It included the nickname "Black Republicans".(for ALL Republicans), and regarded all Republicans as essentially "abolitionists", (though this was a minority of the party).

Even those who realized the differences within the Rep. Party and that Lincoln, et.al. were NOT calling for outlawing slavery, etc. might be offended at the fact that most of them, like Lincoln, DID regard slavery as an evil. Their goal was to keep it from spreading in the territories, and so by containing it, to see it eventually die out.

Many in the South, esp the most powerful, FEARED exactly that. But, in addition, they felt it insulted their "honor" for these Northerners (whom they thought of as uncultured, money-grubbers) to regard the South's "peculiar institution" -- so central to its way of life-- as actually WRONG.

But another key part of all this was the fact that a group of strongly pro-slavery and pro-secession Southerners worked very hard in the 1850s and especially in the Presidential election of 1860 and the period just after Lincoln's election to SPREAD all these sorts of accusations and fears.

In fact, contrary to what became the popular explanation in the South, in 1860-61 (and even before) these people were active, and effective, in arguing that secession was necessary to PRESERVE SLAVERY (yes, it WAS about slavery, after all!)

It's found in their political speeches, in the official documents the early seceding states used to justify their action, and in the speeches of the men sent from these states to try to convince OTHER states to join them.

A recent book that examines the last of these (and includes a number of their speeches, writings) calls them "Apostles of Disunion". (The book, by Charles Dew, has that as its title.)
See more on this book -http://www.upress.virginia.edu/books/dew.html
http://www.nytimes.com/books/01/04/22/bib/010422.rv125315.html -review in NT Times
http://fortyrounder.blogspot.com/2007/02/essay-on-apostles-of-disunion-by.html

And here are some official secession documents -- the Declarations of Causes of Seceding States - South Carolina, Mississippi, Georgia and Texas.
http://members.aol.com/jfepperson/reasons.html

Answer 2

Duh He abolished slavery and the lazy son's of B*tches had to not only let the slaves go but also had to pay reparation to them, that is when the south went broke