... American colonists when oppressed by Britain. The main issue, which most people believe caused the civil war, was the question of slavery. Since the beginning of the 1800's the North and South had been discussing the issue of slavery. The North wished to abolish all slavery in the United States. In the Northern states they felt that they had no need for slaves. Their farms were smaller than in the south and the climate was cooler. Northern farmers did not need slaves to work on their farms for them. During the first decades of the 1800's many Northern States abolished slavery inside their own boundaries. In 1808 Congress made it illegal for ships to bring any new slaves from Africa into the United States. In the South the landowners who owned the big plantations were worried that the Northern states would be able to persuade Congress to ban slavery in ...

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