Long Story Short
Like a wolverine with its tail on fire Lincoln's election had set off a panic throughout South. Within months eleven states would leave the Union to start their own slave-holding nation. But Lincoln wasn't going to let them go without a fight. For four bloody years Americans fought it out in what still remains the deadliest war in American history. Both sides fought hard but in the end the Union prevailed (spoiler alert) and with it the old slave economy of the South was demolished.