Abolition

The abolitionist movement was one of the most controversial movements in all of American history. All of the northern states were slave free, but the south and the west states were dependent on slaves due to their agricultural societies. The discussion of abolishing slavery was always a touchy subject because of the fact that so many southern states were dependent on slave labor. If slavery was abolished that would ruin a large majority of the plantation owners who would no longer have anyone to work on their land. To increase favor for slavery in the south many southern leaders started saying that blacks were far inferior to whites. This not only made slave owners happy, but also white men who had no slaves because it made them feel more important in society. This caused many more southerners to support slavery. However almost every person in the north despised slavery, seeing it as cruel and unjust. This created a large portion of people who wanted slavery to continue along with an equal amount of people who wanted it to disappear completely. 

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