Study Guide
Chapter 14
1. Where did most Southerners live by the mid1850s?
Farms and small towns
2. In what region of the United States were the
majority of the nation’s cities located by the
1850’s?
In the north
3. How did the North feel about slavery by the
1850’s?
They thought it was wrong and most northern
states outlawed slavery.
4. What was slavery’s role in the Southern
economy?
Slavery helped the economy become more
profitable.
5. What happened to slaves when they resisted
slavery?
They were punished because they were trying to
gain freedom.
6. What slave rebellion ended in slaves returning
to Africa?
Amistad rebellion
7. How did Harriet Tubman and others help slaves
reach freedom?
Underground Railroad
8. What was the lifestyle of free African
Americans?
They lived in constant fear of losing their
freedom.
9. What was the Missouri Compromise?
Maine was admitted as free state and Missouri was
admitted as a slave state. Northerners did not want
more slave states than free states.
10. What led to violence in Kansas?
Northerners and Southerners disagreed on the
results of the slavery vote.
11. Why were people outraged at the Supreme
Court’s decision in the Dred Scott case?
The court said African Americans had no rights.
12. What affect did John Brown’s raid have on
the nation?
It further divided the North and the South because
the battle over slavery was getting worse.
13. What were Lincoln’s and Douglas’s views
on slavery?
Lincoln opposed slavery, but Douglas thought
slavery had its place.
14. Why did the Southern states secede from
the Union?
They wanted to keep slavery.
15. What started the Civil War?
Battle at Fort Sumter
16. Why did the Southern states prefer to buy
manufactured goods from Britain rather than
Northern states here at home?
British goods were cheaper than Northern goods.
17. Why did Southern states fear the outlawing
of slavery?
Slavery was profitable to the Southern Economy.
The goods an enslaved person produced brought in
at least twice as much money as the cost of owning
a slave.
18. What details explain how the Underground
Railroad was able to be so successful in its fight
against slavery?
The Underground Railroad was an organized,
secret system. Both whites and African
Americans helped slaves escape to the North or
to Canada.
19. What is one similarity and one difference in
the lifestyle of free African Americans in the
North and slaves in the South?
Different: Many free African Americans in the
North found jobs and bought property. Slaves
were not paid for their work.
Alike: Both slaves and African Americans
struggled for their freedom.
20. What was the underlying issue the Missouri
Compromise was intended to address? Was it
successful or not?
The Missouri Compromise was intended to address
the issue of balance of power between free and
slave states. It was successful for a while because it
maintained the balance by allowing one free state
and one slave state to join the Union at the same
time.
21. Before the outbreak of the Civil War, how
did President Lincoln balance his views on
slavery and his goal for the nation?
Lincoln put his goal of keeping the nation united
above his goal to end slavery. He announced that
he did not want to split the country and that he did
not want the North and the South to be enemies.
22. Why do you think Jefferson Davis thought it
was important to capture Fort Sumter?
Jefferson knew that the Northern forces would be a
“powerful opposition” to the Confederacy. The
Confederacy had already taken control of most forts
and military property in the South, but Fort Sumter
was still under Union control and could be used as a
threat.
23. How did differing goals among people in
the United States lead to the Civil War?
People fought hoping to achieve different goals.
In the Civil War some people were fighting to
end slavery, some to preserve slavery, and
some to preserve the Union.