Essay Question: Since the ending of the Constitutional Convention and the beginning of the Republic, the problem of slavery divided the nation.By the mid 1800s, abolitionism was growing, revolts were becoming more frequent, and the divisions were deepening on a personal and political level in America.Examine the growing sectionalism of the nation from a statistical analysis of events and issues in America.Draw specific conclusions from your findings.
Project Based Lesson: Model Construction Students will design, blueprint and then build a model replica of the homes and workplaces of individuals in the industrial cities of the North, the aristocratic plantations of the South and the rugged frontier cabins/farms of the West.By using multiple intelligence teaching methods, students will learn the daily life and work of individuals in growingly different regions in America.
Readings/Internet: Speeches of Henry Clay, Speeches of Daniel Webster, and Speeches of John C. Calhoun
Links Lesson: 1) Venn Diagram of the pro and con arguments of the Missouri Compromise, 2) Venn Diagram of the pro and con arguments of the Compromise of 1850, 3) Concept Web on the biographical accomplishments of Calhoun, Clay and Webster
Essential Questions: 1) Would non-violent direct action have achieved an end to slavery? 2) Could a compromise on slavery have worked or was a violent crisis inevitable? 3) Did industrialization in the north create two societies in America?4) Is it possible for conquest to be justified as a national policy? 5) Is there any limit to the power of rhetoric, logic and persuasion?Consider historic speakers.
Identification Terms
Henry Clay
Northern States
Southern States
Frontier States
Missouri Compromise
Compromise of 1850
Wilmot Proviso
Zachary Taylor
Annexation of Texas
Battle of the Alamo
Slavery Expansion
1808 Slavery Ban
Tariffs
American System
John C. Calhoun
Daniel Webster
Industrialization
Robert Hayne
Preston Brooks
Davy Crockett
Andrew Jackson
Robert Lowell
Eli Whitney
James K. Polk
Sam Houston
Frederick Douglass
William Lloyd Garrison
Lame-Duck Presidents
Abolitionists
Pro-Slave Ministers
Short Answer Questions
1.Describe the issue of the expansion of slavery from the perspective of a person living in each of the three sections of America then.
2.Explain what the key points were from both Daniel Webster and Robert Hayne concerning the issue of states rights & slavery.
3.Consider the Missouri Compromise and its impact leading the nation to civil war.Is compromise an effective political tool?Explain.
4.Is sectionalism inherent in large nations?Is it politically, economically or socially dangerous? Use examples from history in your answer.
5. Describe how industrialization and a non-slave plantation economy along with an expanding frontier could have worked together.
6.How did American culture accelerate or reverse the tendencies of sectionalism in American history prior to the Civil War?
7.In what way did the annexation of Texas in 1845 change the dynamic of sectional conflict in the United States?
8.What unifying topics or issues broke across sectional lines in the United States prior to the Civil War?What impact did these have?
9.In what political, economic and social ways is America divided today along sectional lines similar to the ante-bellum period in our history?
10.How did the sectional conflicts in the pre-Civil War period reflect larger global issues of change?