1860's Slavery Issue

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Slavery was an extremely prominent and debated issue in the late 1800’s that ended up dividing the United States in half. There were the Northerners who opposed the institution of slavery and the Southerners who gave it their support. The controversy over the use of slavery had been an issue between the North and South for a long time but it became even more evident during the election of 1860. Abraham Lincoln ran in the Republican Party a group who had devoted itself to keeping slavery out of the new territories as the country expanded westward. The south feared abolitionists would use violence in order to deprive the south of slave property. As a result, eleven states in the south decided to leave the Union and form the Confederate States