Why did the South rebel against the Union after Abraham Lincoln was elected president?

A.

Lincoln allowed very few representatives from the South in his Cabinet.

B.

Lincoln's antislavery views threatened the slavery-based plantations in the South.

C.

Lincoln's policies were focused on the industrialized North and ignored the South.

D.

Lincoln planned to introduce an income tax, which would hurt poor farmers in the South.

Straight forward answer: B. Lincoln's antislavery views threatened the slavery-based plantations in the South.

Correct answer: B. Lincoln's antislavery views threatened the slavery-based plantations in the South.

History/context:

The election of 1860 was focused on issues of slavery and states rights. As reported by the West Virginia Dept. of Arts, Culture, and History, "Abraham Lincoln, the Republican Party's nominee in 1860, was seen as a moderate on slavery, but Southerners feared that his election would lead to its demise, and vowed to leave the Union if he was elected."

In a speech Lincoln gave during the 1858 campaign when Lincoln ran for the US Senate, challenging Illinois' incumbent Senator Stephen Douglas, Lincoln had said of slavery, "Although volume upon volume is written to prove slavery a very good thing, we never hear of the man who wishes to take the good of it, by being a slave himself." Lincoln was morally opposed to slavery, but he also recognized that slavery was permitted by the existing law of the land, the US Constitution. So Lincoln's initial position on slavery was to stop the spread of it.

In the South, however, many feared a much more activist agenda from Lincoln and the Republicans. According to the History Channel, "The election of Abraham Lincoln was labeled an act of war by some Southern politicians, who predicted armies would come to seize slaves and force white women to marry black men." So as soon as Lincoln was elected, planning for secession began to occur in states across the South.

The progress of the Civil War made Lincoln increasingly strong in his stance against slavery. The war initially was about preserving the Union, but later, with Lincoln's Emancipation Proclamation (1863), was declared also to be about ending slavery.