The Bretton Woods Agreement, negotiated in July 1944, established a new international monetary system. It was developed by delegates from 44 countries at the United Nations Monetary and Financial Conference held that month in Bretton Woods, N.H. Under the agreement, other currencies were pegged to the value of the U.S. dollar, which, in turn, was pegged to the price of gold. The Bretton Woods system effectively came to an end in the early 1970s, when President Richard M. Nixon announced that the U.S. would no longer exchange gold for U.S. currency.
The abolitionist movement was very powerful in the North, since the North did not rely heavily on a slave population and because slavery had long-since been depleted in the region.
