The short answer is that very few to no Southerners were actively opposed to the institution of slavery, and there was not a chance in hell of it being legislated out of existence any time soon. Indeed, the period 1830-1860 saw the South largely doubling down on slavery. Pro-slavery intellectuals argued for the institution on moral, social, and economic grounds. During this time, slavery expanded beyond agriculture as the South itself began to industrialize. Railroads, mills, and factories throughout the South ran on slave labor; though in fairness, others used free labor.

And indeed, the Civil War itself is lasting proof of the South's commitment to the maintenance of the institution. Apostles of Disunion examines the reasons given to Southerners for secession, and overwhelmingly, they focus on the economic and social consequences of abolition. The overweening fear was that abolition would produce a situation akin to Haiti, in which white men would be economically ruined, the rich through loss of labor, and the poor by being outcompeted by blacks who would work for pennies, while their daughters were raped or married off to black men.