As someone residing in Dixie, I sympathize with the South and their decisions to secede from the Union, the North wanted a huge cut in the exports of the Souths tobbaco and cotton industry, New York was very close to seceding and joining as well, when politicians refused by the will of the majority, there was a lot of anger as a result.
Few people realize that slavery was not as big of a problem as it was made out to be, only the wealthy owned slaves, and it's well documented that there were even black slave owners in the south as well.
As for Abraham Lincoln, I recall that he wanted to send the freed slaves back to Africa, the US purchased Liberia and for whatever reason, it backfired. Many freed slaves fled there and it turned into a [censored].