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    Pre Civil War DBQ

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    repathon
    1) In the early 19th century, disputes over slavery were minimal as the US had just formed and was engaged in other conflicts, but tensions grew over the issue as the country expanded westward. 2) The Missouri Compromise of 1820 marked the first time a state north of the Ohio River was a slave state, exacerbating tensions between North and South. 3) A series of events like the Kansas-Nebraska Act and the Brooks-Sumner affair further polarized the sections to the point that compromise was no longer possible by 1860. Lincoln's election confirmed the South's fears and led to states beginning to secede from the Union.

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    Pre Civil War DBQ

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    repathon
    1K views3 pages
    1) In the early 19th century, disputes over slavery were minimal as the US had just formed and was engaged in other conflicts, but tensions grew over the issue as the country expanded westward. 2) The Missouri Compromise of 1820 marked the first time a state north of the Ohio River was a slave state, exacerbating tensions between North and South. 3) A series of events like the Kansas-Nebraska Act and the Brooks-Sumner affair further polarized the sections to the point that compromise was no longer possible by 1860. Lincoln's election confirmed the South's fears and led to states beginning to secede from the Union.

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    Pre Civil War Dbq

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    1) In the early 19th century, disputes over slavery were minimal as the US had just formed and was engaged in other conflicts, but tensions grew over the issue as the country expanded westward. 2) The Missouri Compromise of 1820 marked the first time a state north of the Ohio River was a slave state, exacerbating tensions between North and South. 3) A series of events like the Kansas-Nebraska Act and the Brooks-Sumner affair further polarized the sections to the point that compromise was no longer possible by 1860. Lincoln's election confirmed the South's fears and led to states beginning to secede from the Union.

    Copyright:

    Attribution Non-Commercial (BY-NC)
    Download as ODT or read online from Scribd
    Download as odt
    1K views3 pages

    Pre Civil War DBQ

    Uploaded by

    repathon
    1) In the early 19th century, disputes over slavery were minimal as the US had just formed and was engaged in other conflicts, but tensions grew over the issue as the country expanded westward. 2) The Missouri Compromise of 1820 marked the first time a state north of the Ohio River was a slave state, exacerbating tensions between North and South. 3) A series of events like the Kansas-Nebraska Act and the Brooks-Sumner affair further polarized the sections to the point that compromise was no longer possible by 1860. Lincoln's election confirmed the South's fears and led to states beginning to secede from the Union.

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    You are on page 1of 3

    Reilly Peavey

    Mr. Armstrong

    APUSH-2

    17 Dec 2008

    Pre-Bellum compromise polarization COTDBQ

    In the beginning of the 19th century, disputes about slavery were fairly minimal. The United

    States had just been created, and they were already engaged in foreign conflicts. Slavery wasn't a very

    big issue for many people. A common geographical border of the Ohio River seperated the slave states

    from the free states. Everybody was content with this common border. However, after spreading west

    of the Appalachians, controlling what was slave territory became difficult. However, due to a simple

    compromising process, the United States government was able to settle disputes of territory, just like

    most other things. But, due to growing tensions, a series of milestone events, and an increasing amount

    of political reformers, compromise on the slavery issue by 1860 became virtually impossible. The

    milestone events started with sectionalism, then the conflicts of moving west, followed by the peculiar

    institutions of the federal government, and ending with southern secessionalism.

    In 1820, the polarization between northern and southern cultures was great. The north was

    booming with industry, and attracted lots of foreign workers. As a result, they had a greater population,

    meaning more seats in the House of Representatives. Due to this immense population, their economic

    industry was better without the competition with slavery, so they were content as a collection of free

    states. The south, by contrast, did not attract foreign industrial workers, due to their lack of solid non-

    agricultural industry. As a result, they had a minority in the House, and were always on the losing side

    of sectional-sensitive laws and regulations, like tariffs and such. However, other than a few tarriffs

    here and there, the north and the south generally got along well with each other.

    One of the first milestones that eventually led to a lack of agreement between the north and

    south was the Missouri Compromise. Missouri wanted to become a state, but there was great dispute
    as to what kind of state it would be. Also at the same time, Maine filed with the Senate for statehood.

    So, the Senate compromised that Maine would be a free state, while Missouri would be a slave state.

    This is the first time that a state that lied partially north of the implied Ohio River would become a

    slave state. So, in order to fix the ordeal, the 36 30 line (Missouri's southern border) would mark the

    line separating free from slave states. Although this was intended as the final barrier between slave and

    free states, there was still great dispute. This eventually led to the Gag rule, where the legislative

    branch of government would ignore all petitions about abolishing or promoting slavery (doc C).

    As more Americans were moving west, tensions increased between the North and the South.

    The South was still losing power in the House, and the North was still trying to gain control of the

    country. Things were going well with the Missouri compromise, until the Bleeding Kansas incident.

    Popular sovergnity, a concept that a state's population should choose whether to be free or slave,

    became a popluar idea. The territories of Kansas and Nebraska were trying to become states, but like

    any other time, there was great dispute over which type of state to become. So, there was a series of

    bloody military battles between pro-slavery groups and abolitionists. In the end, Kansas became a

    slave state, and the tensions between the North and the South became even greater, leading to the

    Brooks-Sumner affair (doc E). By now, the slave affair was completely uncontrollable, and many

    feared that the United States would transform into a mobocracy.

    After this series of events, there seemed to be no amount of compromise that could calm the

    issue. After many thousands of abolitionists were formed with such reformers like Harriet Beecher

    Stowe or William Lloyd Garrison, there was rioting everywhere. The federal government tried all that

    was in their power, including enacting the Fugitive Slave law, giving territories popular sovergnity, and

    abolishing slave trading in Washington DC (doc D). However, due to these past milestones and

    tensions, there was no single compromise that could unite America. It was truly a divided country

    leading up to 1860 (doc F). As Abraham Lincoln put it, “A house cannot stand divided”. And that

    house surely did fall.


    The election of 1860 is said to be one of the most decisive elections in American history.

    Lincoln, popularized by the Lincoln-Douglas debates, was a major contender. He was also the most

    threatening to the South's way of life. Although he wasn't a radical abolitionist, he still believed that

    the Union could not stand if there was no action taken. Shortly after his victory (doc H), South

    Carolina officially seceded from the United States. The previous president, James Buchanan, did

    nothing. Although Buchanan could have delayed the Civil war with compromise, there was no real

    compromise that could have won the South back over. The Civil war began shortly the next year.

    Although the United States was able to compromise easily in the 1820's about slavery, the

    milestone events and the tension factors prevented a compromise to halt the Civil war, which started in

    1861. Once the expansion west began, so did many political and social debates about slavery.

    Compromises became tougher to negotiate, and eventually the house that was America fell, divided

    about the issue of the Monster in the Closet. However, had Lincoln not been elected in 1860, America

    would be a drastically different place today.

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