Is this statement true or false? Northerners refused to allow blacks to join the army at the start of the war because they believed they could not fight.

True. Although many abolitionists believed in the fundamental concept that African Americans should be granted immunities from the institution of slavery, they were not necessary equal to their white counterparts. Likewise, the beginning of the war was an attempt to repress the South from seceding from the Union rather ending the institution of slavery. However, as President Lincoln was initially losing the war, he realized that turning all efforts to prevent slavery would rally the Union army for a greater cause, which eventually established segregated, all-black units in the North.