They projected upon him their worst fears and then proceeded to act upon them.
Do not mistake it. It would be a very real fear if someone led you to believe that your primary source of income is to be threatened and possibly extinguished.
The prospect of losing what you have is very unappealing to anyone, and many people will react viscerally to such a threat, real or not.
In retrospect we can say they overreacted, but who could honestly believe they would do better in their place?
I think you’re missing an even more important point than loss of income. Invested capital.
Value of all slaves was something in the vicinity of $3B. Abolition would, and indeed did, confiscate all that value.
The primary investments of southerners for 60 years had been in slaves. Their value was almost equal to all other wealth in the South combined. 48% of all wealth.
In fact, it was 19% of all wealth in the entire country.
Our economy got all freaked out when it lost something like 10% to 15% of value during the Great Recession.
How do you think it might have reacted to 48%? With the additional fact that the value of much of the land itself was based on a labor force.
Ran across a really great site to quantify the value of slaves and slavery. Recommended.
http://www.measuringworth.com/slavery.php