Study Guide - Unit Five: Sectionalism and the Coming of the Civil War

Due Date	Assignment
Mon., Oct. 24	1. Read the following sections in the textbook: p. 260-74 2. Answer questions 1 – 5
Tues., Oct. 25	Download the Debate Documents on the War with Mexico and prepare for the debate on Ex-Day. We will be pretending that we are debating whether or not to go to war after President Polk has delivered his war message. So, clearly, this is after Texas has already been annexed and made a state. Some of the documents come from after Polk’s war message. You can pretend that you have great foresight and can use the arguments presented in those documents. Download and read the documents on my website.
Weds., Oct. 26	1. Read p. 274 – 277 2. Answer question 6
Thurs., Oct. 27	1. Read p.254 – 259 2. Answer questions 7 – 8
Fri., Oct. 28	1. Read p. 282 – 284 2. Answer questions 9 - 10 3. Brainstorm a chart of everything you can think of that the North and South have in common and what separates them. Think back to everything we’ve talked about so far this year.
Mon., Oct. 31	1. Read p. 284 – 287 2. Answer questions 10 – 11 3. Read the excerpts from the debates on the Compromise of 1850. make summarizing notes in the margin of the main point for each paragraph. It is NOT enough to highlight key sentences. Be prepared to talk about the Discussion Questions at the beginning of each excerpt.
Tues., Nov., 1	1. Read p. 288 – 291 2. Answer question 12 3. Read the excerpt from Uncle Tom’s Cabin and highlight or note all the ways that this novel appeals to the reader to condemn slavery.
Weds., Nov. 2	1. Read p. 291 - 298 2. Read the handout, “The Republican Party and the Race Question” 3. Answer questions 13 – 16
Thurs., Nov. 3	1. Read p. 299 – 302 (to “Passions Erupt”) 2. Read the excerpts from the Lincoln-Douglas debates (handout) 3. Answer questions 17 – 20
Fri., Nov. 4	1. Read p. 302– 305 2. Read John Brown’s Last Speech (handout) 3. Read the excerpt from the Political Party Platforms 4. Answer Questions 22 - 24
Mon., Nov., 7	Review for Test
Tues., Nov. 8	Test

Reading Questions

1.	Define “manifest destiny.”
2.	What was the dispute over Oregon and how was it resolved?
3.	Describe the growing conflict between American settlers and Mexico.
4.	Make a timeline of the events in the Texan Revolution from the Alamo to Texas becoming a state.
5.	Summarize the arguments for and against going to war with Mexico.
6.	Identify the following: The Bear Flag Republic, Zachary Taylor, Winfield Scott, Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo, Gadsden Purchase, election of 1848, and California Gold Rush
7.	Make a list of the inventions and technological improvements of this period and discuss how these innovations promoted the new market economy.
8.	Summarize the economies of the different regions of the country in the mid-nineteenth century.
9.	Describe the economic differences between the North and the South in the 1850s.
10.	Describe the arguments that arose concerning statehood for California. What were the concerns of each side?
11.	List the terms of the Compromise of 1850
12.	What were the roles of Harriet Tubman and Harriet Beecher Stowe in changing the attitudes of northerners towards slavery and fighting the institution of slavery?
13.	What were the provisions of the Kansas-Nebraska Act and how did this law effectively repeal the Missouri Compromise?
14.	Make a time-line listing the events between the Compromise of 1850 through the events in Bleeding Kansas. Be sure you know how the events relate to each other and how one event causes another.
15.	Summarize political developments in the mid 1850s: what happened to the Whig Party? What did the Know-Nothing and Free-Soil Parties each stand for? What groups came together to form the Republican party? What happened in the election of 1856?
16.	Summarize what Eric Foner says in the handout about the attitude of Republicans towards Negro rights in the 1850s.
17.	Summarize the Supreme Court’s ruling in the Dred Scott decision.
18.	What was the LeCompton Constitution and what role did it play in exacerbating feelings about Kansas?
19.	What was the Freeport Doctrine?
20.	Read the excerpts from the Lincoln Douglas debates and list the arguments that each man made.
21.	What was the reaction to John Brown’s raid on Harpers Ferry? Read the excerpt from John Brown’s last speech. Why did he say he did what he did?
22.	Summarize the information on the election of 1860: Why was Lincoln chosen as the Republican nominee? What happened to the Democratic party? What do the results say about the country on the eve of the Civil War?
23.	Read the handout on the Political Party Platforms. Summarize what the Douglas and Breckinridge Democrats as well as the Republicans said in their platforms about slavery.
24.	Make a time-line listing the events between Bleeding Kansas and the inauguration of Abraham Lincoln in April, 1861.

Identifications: You should be familiar with all of these items by the time we finish the unit.

1.	Market revolution	26.	Annexation of Texas	52.	John Brown
2.	Charles Goodyear	27.	Slidell Mission	53.	Senator Charles Sumner
3.	Elias Howe	28.	Zachary Taylor	54.	Nativism
4.	Samuel R. B. Morse	29.	Stephen Kearny	55.	Know-Nothing Party
5.	Robert Fulton	30.	Bear Flag Republic	56.	Free-Soil Party
6.	Erie Canal	31.	Battle of Buena Vista	57.	Republican Party
7.	John Deere	32.	Winfield Scott	58.	John C. Fremont
8.	Cyrus McCormick	33.	Battle of Veracruz	59.	James Buchanan
9.	Manifest Destiny	34.	Battle of Chapultepec	60.	Dred Scott v. Sanford
10.	Fort Laramie Treaty	35.	Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo	61.	Chief Justice Roger B. Taney
11.	Santa Fe Trail	36.	Gadsden Purchase	62.	LeCompton Constitution
12.	Oregon Trail	37.	Free-Soil Party	63.	Lincoln-Douglas Debates
13.	Mormons	38.	Election of 1848	64.	Freeport Doctrine
14.	Joseph Smith	39.	California Gold Rush	65.	Harpers Ferry
15.	Brigham Youg	40.	Wilmot Proviso	66.	Election of 1860
16.	Election of 1844	41.	Compromise of 1850	67.	Abraham Lincoln
17.	James K. Polk	42.	Popular Sovereignty	68.	John C. Breckinridge
18.	Stephen Austin	43	Stephen A. Douglas	69.	John Bell
19.	General Santa Anna	44.	Fugitive Slave Act	70.	Secession Convention
20.	Texan Revolution	45.	Personal liberty laws	71.	Confederate States of America
21.	Alamo	46.	Underground Railroad	72.	Jefferson Davis
22.	Goliad	47.	Harriet Tubman
23.	Sam Houston	48.	Uncle Tom’s Cabin
24.	Battle of San Jacinto	49.	Harriet Beecher Stowe
25.	Republic of Texas	50.	Kansas-Nebraska Act
		51.	Bleeding Kansas

Themes

Sectionalism and the Mexican War

o How did the South, North, and the West differ as sections of the country in the antebellum years?

o Why did Americans settle in Texas? How did it become an independent country in 1836? What problems did the annexation of Texas bring to the country?

o In what ways did the concept of Manifest Destiny affect the foreign and domestic policies of the US in the years 1840-1850?

o What were the arguments that both sides employed for and against going to war with Mexico?

o What problems arose with the new territory gained in the Mexican Cession? How did the Mexican War exacerbate political and social tensions between the South and the North?

The Road to the Civil War

o How did the introduction of the Wilmot Proviso affect the North and the South?

o Why was Congress able to pass the Compromise of 1850? How did the Compromise affect the balance between the South and the North?

o What was the impact of Harriet Beecher Stowe’s Uncle Tom’s Cabin on both the North and the South?

o What specific events and/or acts were associated with the widening breach between the North and South concerning the problems of slavery? How did the events of the 1850s increase northern fears that slavery was going to spread to the new territories?

o What was the impact of the Kansas-Nebraska Act?

o What were the constitutional implications of the Dred Scott decision? What were the practical consequences?

o Why did the Whig Party break up in the 1850s? Why did the Republican Party form? What was the Republican platform? How did issues in the 1850s impact these two parties?

o What were the positions of Lincoln and Douglas in their debates?

o What was the impact of the issues of the 1850s on the election of 1860? What was the platform of each party in the election of 1860? What were the electoral results of the election? Why did Lincoln win?