The Civil War was a great conflict between the Northern and Southern states of America. The principle cause of this war found its roots in the early 1800's as the Northern states moved away from farming towards manufacturing. Agriculture remained the most important way of making a living in the South. Planters used black slaves to work their fields for minimal costs and generated immense profits. The slavery trade came to the United States in 1619, when a Dutch merchant ship arrived in Jamestown, Virginia carrying twenty black Africans. The slaves were sold to American colonists and for years every part of the country practised slavery.
             Slavery soon vanished from the North, as harsh winters were unbearable for the Africans. Small landowners in the North could also not afford a sturdy field hand as costs ran up to $1800. For theses reasons they turned to industry and machines rather than farm hands. In the South the number of black slaves only increased to help meet a worldwide demand for tobacco and cotton. It was necessary to farm large areas of land and slaves were best suited for producing these crops.
             As slavery continued to grow, sentiment against it did as well. This caused the United States Government to pass a law forbidding slavery in 1808. This only meant that ships could no longer carry cargos of African slaves to Southern ports and sell them to colonists. Slavery continued to flourish in the South as this law did not affect slaves already labouring inside the country. A movement began to surface in the North during 1840's to abolish slavery. This group known as "abolitionists" deemed it was morally wrong for one individual to own another.
             Slavery grew worse as westward expansion began in the United States. New states were admitted to the Union from territories west of the Mississippi. For every slave state brought into the Union a free state was also admitted keeping an uneasy balance between th...