Little Sectionalism Quiz Chapters 18 & 19 and lecture/discussions
Students may use written notes only. No computer print outs
Name:
Please write True or False after the statement (2 points each)
1. The California god rush of 1849 diverted the nation’s attention from the issue
of slavery.
2. In the Senate debate of 1850, Calhoun spoke for compromise, while Clay and
Webster each defended his own section’s interests.
3. In the Key provisions of the Compromise of 1850, New Mexico and Utah were
admitted to the union as slave states, while California was left open to
popular sovereignty.
4. The Pierce administration’s expansionist’s efforts in Central America & Cuba
were basically designed to serve southern proslavery interests.
5. Pro Southern Kansas pioneers brought numerous slaves with them in order
to guarantee that Kansas would not become a free state.
6. Both the radical abolitionists and militant pro-slavery forces provoked the
violence in Kansas.
7. By opposing the proslavery Lecompton Constitution in Kansas, Senator
Stephan A. Douglas was able to unit the Democratic Party.
8. Both states of South Carolina and Massachusetts defiantly reelected the
principal figures of the Brooks-Sumner beating incident.
9. The Dared Scott decision upheld the doctrine of popular sovereignty that the
people of each territory should determine whether or to permit slavery.
10. John Brown’s raid at Harper’s Ferry failed to set off a slave uprising but
succeeded in inflaming passions in both North and South.
11. Lincoln made a strong effort to get the South to accept the Crittenden
Comprise in order to avoid a civil war.
12. The Kansas-Nebraska Act was the instigation to the inevitable break up of the
national party system in the U.S. during the decade of the 1850s.
1
Multiple Choice: (3 Points each)
1. The idea of “Popular sovereignty” during the 1850s was connected to the
idea that
a. the people should elect the government of each new territory.
b. The Aerican public should vote on whether to admit states with or
without slavery.
c. The United States should assume popular control of the territory
acquired from Mexico.
d. The people of a territory should determine for themselves whether or not
to permit slavery.
2. The proposed admission of California directly into the Union was
dangerously controversial because
a. the territory was in a condition of complete lawlessness and anarchy.
b. The Mexicans were threatening renewed warfare if California joined the
Union.
c. California’s admission as a free state would destroy the equal balance of
slave and free states in the U.S. Senate.
d. There was a growing movement to declare California and independent
republic, the Bear Flag Republic.
3. Among the most notable advocates of compromise in the controversy over
slavery in 1850 were
a. William Seward & Zachary Taylor.
b. Henry Clay & Daniel Webster.
c. John C. Calhoun & Abraham Lincoln.
d. Stephen A. Douglass & William Lloyd Garrison.
4. Under the terms of the Compromise of 1850
a. California was admitted to the Union as a free sate, and slavery in Utah and
New Mexico territories would be left up to popular sovereignty.
b. California was admitted as a free state, and Utah and New Mexico as slave
states.
c. California, Utah, and New Mexico were kept as territories but with slaver
prohibited.
d. New Mexico and Texas were admitted as slave states and Utah and California
as free states.
5. One of the primary effects of the Fugitive Slave Law passed as part of the
Compromise of 1850 was
a. and end to slave escapes and the Underground Railroad.
b. The extension of the Underground Railroad into Canada.
c. A sharp rise in northern antislavery sentiment.
d. And increase in violent slave rebellions in the South, like Nat Turner’s
Rebellion.
2
6. Southerners, and seeking to expand territory of slavery were especially
interested in acquiring
a. Canada & Alaska.
b. Venezuela & Colombia.
c. Nicaragua & Cuba.
d. Hawaii & the Philippines.
7. Northerners especially resented Douglas’s Kansas-Nebraska Act because
a. it aimed to build a transcontinental railroad along the southern route.
b. It would make him the leading Democratic candidate for the presidency.
c. It repealed the Missouri Compromise prohibiting slavery in northern
territories.
d. It would bring Kansas into the Union as a slave state.
8. Hinton R. Helper’s Impending Crisis of the South contended that
a. slavery violated the essential principles of the United States Constitution.
b. Slavery was contrary to the religious values held by most Americans.
c. Slavery did great harm to not only the poor whites of the South, but to the
Southern economy and well being.
d. Slavery violated the human rights of African-Americans.
9. The conflict over slavery in Kansas
a. the first settlers brought a substantial number of enslaved people to the
territory.
b. Was resolved by the Crittenden Compromise.
c. Was temporarily resolved by the Compromise of 1850.
d. Was greatly accelerated by the abolitionist-funded settlers and the
proslavery “border ruffians” from Missouri.
10. The fanatical abolitionists John Brown made his first entry into violent
antislavery politics by
a. killing five proslavery settlers at Pottawatomie Creek, Kansas.
b. Organizing a slave rebellion in Missouri
c. Leading an armed raid on the federal arsenal at Harpers Ferry, VA.
e. Organizing an armed militia of blacks and whites to conduct escaping
slaves to Canada.
11. The Sumner-Brooks affair revealed that
a. that antislavery was as willing to turn to violence as much as proslavery
southerners were.
b. That violent disagreements over slavery were being felt in the halls of
congress.
c. That neither Southerners nor Northerners were ready to tolerate political
violence over slavery.
d. How loyalty to section was beginning to supersede loyalty to political party.
3
12. In the Dared Scott Decision, the Supreme Court
a. avoided controversy by ruling that the slave Dred Scott had no right to
sue in court.
b. Ruled that the Kansas-Nebraska Act was unconstitutional.
c. Congress could not prohibit slavery from the territories because
slaves were private property.
d. Slaves could sue in federal court only if their masters allowed them to
do so.
13. A key issue in the Lincoln & Douglas debates was
a. a. whether secession from the Union was legal.
b. Whether people from a territory could prohibit in light of the Dred
Scott decision.
c. Whether or not Illinois could continue to exclude all African
Americans form settling in the state.
d. Whether Kansas should be admitted to the Union as a free or slave
state.
14. Southerners were particularly enraged by the John Brown affair because
a. so many slaves joined the insurrection.
b. The whole North shared many believed Brown’s violent abolitionist
sentiment.
c. Brown had expressed his contempt for the entire southern way of life.
d. Brown escaped punishment by pleading insanity—the North, as well
as the South was ready to forgive him once he repented his sins.
Part III: On separate sheet of paper please respond to one of the following: Please
use specific detail. Name the political parties. Name the acts or actions. Please
remember to include why the event/action cause the certain reactions.
1. Discuss the events of the United States in the 1850s that increased
sectionalism and ultimately led the secession of the southern states.
2. To what extent was the Kansas-Nebraska Act responsible for the break up of
the 2 party national system?
4