In what ways did economic, geographic, and social factors encourage the development of slavery in the American colonies?
Were the national differences over slavery before 1850 due primarily to economic, political, legal, or moral disagreements?
In what ways and to what extent did the Second Great Awakening change American Society?
To what extent was slavery the cause of the Civil War?
Unit Quick Look
- The “Cotton Gin” and cash crop economy of the south promotes the expansion of
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- slavery
A power struggle develops between Free and Slave states in congress over the limit or expansion of slavery into new territories
The Second Great Awakening provides a catalyst to social reform
Under the call of “manifest destiny”, America expands to the pacific
Several events during the decade of 1850 lead to calls for southern secession
The election of Lincoln in 1860 pushes the south to secede from the Union
Readings: American Pageant , Chapters 18, 19,
The American Spirit , Selected reading
Essential Content Questions:
1.
What were the economic differences between northern and southern states before the Civil War?
Before the Civil War the North experienced a growing manufacturing economy, several political changes, and a variety of dynamic reform movements. The South remained primarily an agricultural society based upon the growing of cotton in a plantation system.
2.
What were the political and economic differences between northern and southern states before the Civil War?
Northerners generally supported a Bank of the United States, a protective tariff, internal improvements at federal expense, and the prohibition of slavery in the territories. Southerners generally disagreed with northerners on all these issues.
3. What impact did the Second Great Awakening have in contributing to sectional tensions?
The Second Great Awakening was a nation wide revival movement which
“feminized” religion. Women, always seen as the conscience of society, took up leadership roles in many churches. Women; as the conscience of society, were

heavily involved in the many reform movements of the era, including abolition movements. Membership in Methodist and Baptist churches swelled during this era, but these churches would later divide over the issue of slavery. I.e., Southern
Baptists and Southern Methodists
4. What caused the Civil War?
The primary causes of the Civil War included an argument over federal as opposed to states’ rights, a struggle for control of the federal government, economic differences, and slavery. Many historians feel that slavery was the main cause because it was an emotional issue that most separated the North and South.
Some historians point out that slavery was not the main cause because the North did not threaten to end slavery where it already existed. Furthermore, five states –
Missouri, Kentucky, West Virginia, Maryland, and Delaware – fought for the
Union.
5. What did northerners think of slavery? What did southerners think of slavery?
Although there was a growing abolitionist movement in the North, most northerners, before the 1850s, did not generally sympathize with the abolitionists.
Those that did support abolitionism felt that slavery was morally wrong. In addition, abolitionists thought slavery led to the inhumane treatment of blacks, violated the principles of democracy, and violated the teachings of the Bible.
Although most southerners did not own slaves, southerners generally supported slavery by arguing that it had always existed, it was more humane than northern capitalism, and it was, as many southerners believed, sanctioned by the bible.
6. How were differences between North and South settled before the
1850s?
Before the 1850s sectional differences were usually compromised at the federal level. The most notable compromises included the Missouri Compromise of 1820 and the Compromise of 1833.
7. What effect did the Mexican-American War have on sectional differences?
The end of the Mexican-American War in 1848 marked a turning point in sectional conflict. The land obtained from Mexico at the end of the war intensified the debate over whether slavery should be allowed in the territories. This issue was increasingly difficult to compromise since the addition of new states, slave or free, would upset the political balance between North and South, particularly in the U.S. Senate.
8. What was the compromise of 1850?
In the Compromise of 1850, California became a free state (the South’s main concession) and Congress adopted a strict federal Fugitive Slave Law (the North’s main concession). The compromise also declared that the slave trade would be abolished in the District of Columbia, slavery in New Mexico and Utah would be decided by popular sovereignty, the Texas boundary would be reduced, and the
Texas debt would be paid by the federal government.
9. What effect did Uncle Tom’s Cabin have on sectional differences?

Uncle Tom’s Cabin by Harriet Beecher Stowe (daughter of an abolitionist preacher) stirred the conscience of the North and increased the anti-slavery sentiment. Abolitionist were no longer seen as zealots; slavery was no longer acceptable to ever growing numbers of northerners. The best selling and most widely read book of the ante-bellum period.
10. What was the Kansas-Nebraska Act?
The Kansas-Nebraska Act (1854), authored by Senator Stephen Douglas, was passed as a provision for creating territorial governments in Kansas and Nebraska.
The Kansas-Nebraska Act repealed the Missouri Compromise by requiring that the issue of slavery be settled not by the 36-30 line, but by popular sovereignty.
11. Why was the Republican Party created?
After the Whig Party split over the issue of slavery many northerners were looking for an alternative to the Democratic Party’s support of popular sovereignty. Passage of the Kansas-Nebraska Act in 1854 led to the creation of the Republican Party, a party that was opposed to popular sovereignty and the extension of slavery into the territories.
12. What was the Dred Scott decision?
In a sweeping victory for the southern slave owners, the Supreme Court ruled in
Dred Scott v. Sandford (1857) that blacks were not citizens and could not sue in federal court. The Court ruled that Congress could not outlaw slavery in the territories since a prohibition of slavery would deprive slave owners of their property and deny them a fundamental right protected by the Constitution.
13. What were the Lincoln-Douglas debates?
In an election for the U.S. Senate in 1858, Abraham Lincoln and Stephen Douglas held a series of debates in Illinois. Although Douglas won the election, Lincoln gained national recognition. Douglas, a presidential hopeful, argued that although
Congress could not keep slavery out of the territories, the people could.
14. What happened at Harper’s Ferry, Virginia in 1859?
In 1859 John Brown, a radical abolitionist, led a raid on the federal arsenal at
Harper’s Ferry. Brown, who hoped to seize weapons from the federal arsenal and start a slave revolt in the south, was captured and charged with treason.
After he was found guilty and executed, Brown became a martyr to many northerners. Southerners, on the other hand, saw Brown as a part of a general northern conspiracy against slavery and therefore increased their pro-slavery rhetoric.
15. What happened in the election of 1860?
Although Abraham Lincoln won a minority of popular votes running against three other candidates, he won a majority of electoral votes and was chosen the sixteenth president of the United States. Seven southern states responded to Lincoln’s election by seceding from the Union and forming the Confederate
States of America.

Significant Events
1. Invention of the cotton gin, 1793 2. Missouri Compromise, 1820
3. The Second Great Awakening
3. Nat Turner leads slave revolt, 1831
5. Mexican Cession, 1848
7. Compromise of 1850
9. Kansas-Nebraska Act, 1854
4. Compromise of 1833
6. Wilmot Proviso, 1850
8. Harriet Beecher Stowe
Uncle Tom’s Cabin , 1852
10. Republican Party created, 1854
11. Dred Scott v. Sandford, 1857 12. Lincoln-Douglas debates, 1858
13. John Brown’s raid on Harper’s Ferry, 1859 14. Election of 1860
15. Southern secession, 1860-1861 16. Confederate States of America, created, 1861
Important People
17. Abraham Lincoln 18. William Lloyd Garrison

19. Frederick Douglas
21. Sojourner Truth
23. Jefferson Davis
25. John C. Fremont
27. Stephen A. Douglas
29. John Bell
Additional Information
31. antebellum
33. Underground Railroad
35. Bleeding Kansas
37. Freeport Doctrine
20. Harriet Tubman
22. John C. Calhoun
24. Henry Clay
26. Roger Taney
28. John Breckenridge
30. John Brown
32. “peculiar institution”
34. Fugitive Slave Act
36. Popular sovereignty
38. confederation