White southerners wanted slavery to continue because that is what ran the economy. Slaves plowed the fields, picked cotton and worked without pay. They didn't want to give up having free labor done. The cotton economy would collapse, the tobacco crops would dry in the fields. They also thought that if the slaves were freed that there would be mass chaos and a lot of people unemployed. They also argued that slavery has existed throughout history and was the natural state of mankind. I could go on lol..
