Most people expected a gradual rather than a sudden end to slavery in the Southern states because that's the way it ended or was coming to an end in New England and states along the Northern seaboard. State legislators converted de jure slavery into apprenticeship, or de facto slavery.

Regardless of how it may sound today, slavery as stated in the Texas declaration was thought to beneficial to Africans on American soil. Slaveholders usually grew up with slaves in their household and recognized them as members of an extended family. Contrary to the fanciful image provided by "Uncle Tom's Cabin", the number of slaves in a majority of households remained small, usually five to seven. Their relationship was more personal rather than business in nature.

After the war, Confederate veterans remembered working in the fields alongside slaves, each man doing the same kind of work. During the war, Confederate soldiers writing home often conveyed personal greetings to slaves at home, speaking of each one by name.

You may not have intended to suggest antebellum Southern hostility towards African slaves, but words to that effect apeared in your post. The racial conflict which Abraham Lincoln predicted following emancipation did arise in almost every state in which former slaves lived. However, in Southern states hostility arose as a result of the struggle to control local government. Former slaves were viewed as proxies for the Yankees, who left the South following Reconstruction. Hostility to and violence against former slaves in other parts of the United States were primarily caused by competition for labor and perceived racial differences.