Absolutely. Keeping slaves was an economic decision. The only reason to own a slave is to have the use of slave labor.
The loss of slaves caused economic devastation to the South. A good slave was worth $1000, an incredible sum back then.
That's right. But slavery was no longer profitable in the North, so they wanted to end it. And they wanted to end it with no solution regarding the replacement of that number.
Had cooler heads prevailed, the institution of slavery would've ended. With the preaching of the Wesleys (late 1700s) and their followers, it would have ended much as it had in Britain. But slowly. And there wouldn't have been an entire race/class of uneducated and ill-prepared people simply turned out to fend for themselves.