Decades before the Civil War broke out, many states in the North had abolished slavery and support was increasing for the abolition of slavery in all of the United States.
However, in the 1950s, most Northerners did not necessarily want slavery abolished even through they opposed it. They wanted it to be gradually removed because they did not want the freed blacks coming to take their jobs and they were worried about war with the South. The Civil War changed their minds.
