PERIOD 5: 1844-1877

Chapter 20 “Drifting Toward Disunion”(1854-1861)

The over-arching theme of chapter 20 is that compromise had prevailed earlier over the slavery issue, but this time, it failed.

Learning Objectives – After reading this chapter you should be able to:

  1. relate the sequence of major crises that led from the Kansas-Nebraska Act to secession.
  2. explain how and why "Bleeding Kansas" became a dress rehearsalfor the Civil War.
  3. trace the growing power of the Republican party in the 1850s and the increasing divisions and helplessness of the Democrats.
  4. explain how the Dred Scott decision and Brown's Harpers Ferry raid deepened sectional antagonism.
  5. trace the rise of Lincoln as the leading exponent of the Republican doctrine of no expansion of slavery.
  6. analyze the complex election of 1860 in relation to the sectional crisis.
  7. describe the movement toward secession, the formation of the Confederacy, and the failure of the last compromise effort.

Identify the Historical Significance of the following –

  1. Harriett Beecher Stowe
  2. Hinton R. Helper
  3. John Brown
  4. James Buchanan
  5. Charles Sumner
  6. John C. Fremont
  7. Dred Scott
  8. Roger B. Taney
  9. John C. Breckenridge
  10. John Bell
  11. Abraham Lincoln
  12. Jefferson Davis
  13. John Crittenden

Define & State the historical significance of the following –

  1. self-determination

  1. Southern nationalism

Describe & State the historical significance of the following –

  1. Uncle Tom’s Cabin
  2. The Impending Crisis of the South
  3. New England Immigration Aid Society
  4. Pottawatomie Creek massacre
  5. Lecompton Constitution
  6. “Bleeding Kansas”
  7. American (know Nothing) Party
  8. Dred Scott decision
  9. Panic of 1857
  10. Lincoln-Douglas debates
  11. Freeport Doctrine
  12. Harpers Ferry raid
  13. Constitutional Union Party
  14. Crittenden Compromise

To build your social science vocabulary, familiarize yourself with the following terms.

1.puppet government - a government set up and controlled by outside forces

2.bigoted -blindlyornarrowlyintolerant

3.public domain - land or other things belonging to the whole nation, controlled by the federal government

4.bandwagon -in politics, a movement or candidacy that gains rapid momentum because of people's p:urported desire to join a successful cause

5.forensic -concerning public or legal argumentation

6.apportionment -theallotmentordistributionoflegislativerepresentativesindistrictsaccording to population

7.splintering - concerning the small political groups left after a larger group has divided orbrokenapart

8.affidavit -a sworn, written testimony, usually attested to by a notary public or legal officer

9.martyr - one who is tortured or killed for adherence to a belief

10.vassalage - the service and homage given by a feudal subordinate to an overlord