STEPPING STONES TO THE CIVIL WAR
PartII
A.Individual Assignment: Review your chart on the descriptions of each of the stepping stones to the Civil War. Take a few minutes to reflect and evaluate which THREE of these stepping stones had the most significant impact in causing the Civil War; make your determination of the top 3 events that led to war and list them below:
1.
2.
3.
B.Group Assignment: As a group, categorize each of these stepping stones in areas of importance. Using the right hand column of your charts, label whether the event was of primarily “Geographical, Political, Economic, or Moral” importance and WHY. (Each member of the group must have a chart.) Please note that each item may fall into more than one category of importance. Your group must come to a consensus and assign only one primary category per stepping stone. You may, however, note a secondary category as well if the groupagrees.
C.Group Assignment: Once you have completed “B” above, decide within your group which ONE stepping stone was the most important because it represented the “point of no return” insuring that war would take place. Note your group’s decision and reasoning here and be prepared to defend yourposition!
Group’s Choice of “Point of No Return” andreasoning:
D.Group Assignment: As your final group decision, determine which ONE of the following issues was the most important overall issue leading to the Civil War. Circle the number of your group’s choice and indicate your reasoningbelow.
1.The moral issue regarding existence of slavery in ademocracy.
2.The economic issue keeping the South dependent on Northerninterests.
3.The political issue of Southern influence declining to a minority in national politics.
4.The geographical issue of not allowing “King Cotton” to physicallyspread.
Group Rationale forchoice:
E.Review/Reflect/Revise: Revisit the choices you made in part “A” above of the top
3 events that led to war. Now that you have had the opportunity to work collaboratively and deepen your knowledge and insight, revise your choices of the top 3 events that led to the war, note them below and briefly explain why you revised yourposition.
1.
2.
3.
Explanation of revision inchoices: