Beginning of Essay
My name is Joshua Lawrence Chamberlain; I am going to tell you a brief history on what the United States was like before I was born. In 1788 the United States became an independent nation. It was made up of thirteen states and owned several territories on the west ....

Middle of Essay
.... the early 1800s. In the Northeast big cities and industry thrived, and the South consisted of large farms. These different sections had different views. Slavery was the biggest issue that the north and south disagreed on. People in the south said that they needed slaves for help with harvesting crops. But people in the north wanted slavery to be abolished. I was born September 8, 1828, in Brewer, Maine. Maine is the northern most state on the Atlantic coast of the continental United States. I grew up on a 100-acre farm, the oldest of five children. I had three brothers: Horace, John, and Thomas and one sister Sarah. My mother, Sarah Dupee Brastow Cha ....