You know how Lincoln forced the south to secede?
This is a major RW Civil War revisionism talking point... that Lincoln somehow forced the confederacy to break away because of something or another he did. This is right alongside the bizarre falsehood that the secession was not primarily about a wish to retain slavery. It was.
(When someone says "tariffs" were the main issue that is often code for, "I am a white supremacist." The tariff situation was negotiable and would have been negotiated away to save the Union if there was any point in doing so, which there wasn't because slavery was non-negotiable. Every southern grievance other than people hating on slavery was well on its way to resolution. The great "complexity" of the origin of the Civil War is from a Confederacy apologist strain of remedial history that was in vogue, and taught in schools, for much of the 20th century.)
The United States did not break apart in response to anything Lincoln did. It broke apart in response to his election.
Seven states declared their secession from the United States between election day (November 1860) and when Lincoln took office on March 4, 1861. (And most or all cited slavery as the predominant reason for doing so.)
Again... the bulk of the Confederacy seceded in response to Lincoln's election.
(four more states followed after Fort Sumter, which was a month after inauguration day.)
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The most unCivil war was machinated by the North and that had absolutely NOTHING to do with the fact that they gave a rats ass about slaves. The only thing they cared about the slaves was, is that it gave the South a lot of cheap basically free labor.
This gave them the ability to produce very cheap product which made it affordable to for foreign countries - like FRANCE - to come in and buy up the cotton and ship. The North - a manufacturing environment, was heavily dependent on that cotton. They didn't want it shipping out. They didn't want prices going up. They didn't want competition.
They may have manipulated the South into thinking "they're coming for our SLAVES!" (sounds a lot like "they're coming for our guns!" and "they're coming for our "Bibles", but anyway. . . )
And FWIW - Lincoln actually didn't really give a rats ass either. While he may have thought slavery "morally wrong", he wasn't an abolitionist and didn't really want to mess with the status quo . He only wanted to "keep the Union together" he didn't care one way or another if slaves were freed or not. “If I could save the Union without freeing any slave, I would do it; and if I could save it by freeing all the slaves, I would do it; and if I could save it by freeing some and leaving others alone, I would also do that. What I do about slavery and the colored race, I do because I believe it helps to save the Union; and what I forbear, I forbear because I do not believe it would help to save the Union.”
It was a political and military decision to write the Emancipation Proclamation (which - btw - did NOT apply to every state). The northern masses were emotionally manipulated into fighting for their Manufacturing overlords. He didn't believe blacks should have the SAME RIGHTS as whites. Abraham Lincoln, “I will say then that I am not, nor ever have been, in favor of bringing about in any way the social and political equality of the white and black races,” he began, going on to say that he opposed blacks having the right to vote, to serve on juries, to hold office and to intermarry with whites." he also thought "colonization a great idea - you know - shipping them back to Africa - specifically Liberia from when they all did NOT come.
That for the SOUTH, it was very much about slavery is true. But again - that was a whole lot on economics. Although by that time, it had become such an ingrained sick way of life they couldn't even entertain the notion of anything else. They thought slaves were animals put here by gawd to serve them. That they - the whites - were "doing them a favor" by taking care of them as they couldn't be own their on. 