Name: Class Period: Due Date: / /

Guided Reading & Analysis: The Union in Peril, 1848-1861

Chapter 13- Sectionalism Propelling the Nation into Civil War pp 247-261
Reading Assignment:
Ch. 13 AMSCO other source covering Period 5.

Purpose:
This guide is not only a place to record notes as you read, but also to provide a place and structure for
reflections and analysis using your noggin (thinking skills) with new knowledge gained from the reading.
 Mastery of the course and AP exam await all who choose to process the information as they
read/receive. This is an optional assignment. So… young Jedi… what is your choice? Do? Or do not? There is no try . (image from released College Board exam)

Directions:
1. Pre-Read: Read the prompts/questions within this guide before you read the chapter.
2. Skim: Flip through the chapter and note titles and subtitles. Look at images and read captions. Get a feel for the content you are about to read.
3. Read/Analyze: Read the chapter. If you have your own copy of AMSCO, Highlight key events and people as you read. Remember, the goal is not
to “fish” for a specific answer(s) to reading guide questions, but to consider questions in order to critically understand what you read!
4. Write Write (do not type) your notes and analysis in the spaces provided. Complete it in INK!

Key Concepts FOR PERIOD 5:

Key Concept 5.1: The United States became more connected with the world, pursued an expansionist foreign policy in
the Western Hemisphere, and emerged as the destination for many migrants from other countries.
Key Concept 5.2: Intensified by expansion and deepening regional divisions, debates over slavery and other economic,
cultural, and political issues led the nation into civil war.
Key Concept 5.3: The Union victory in the Civil War and the contested reconstruction of the South settled the issues of
slavery and secession, but left unresolved many questions about the power of the federal government and citizenship
rights.

Section 1 Guided Reading, pp 247-260

1. Intro: The Union in Peril, 1848-1861 page 247

Key Concepts &

Main Ideas Notes

Intensified by Read the Abraham Lincoln quote and first paragraph of the chapter on page 247.
expansion and List and explain the four main reasons historians agree on that propelled the nation into civil war. 1)
deepening regional
divisions, debates
2)
over slavery and
other economic,
cultural, and political 3)
issues led the nation
into civil war.
4)

Which cause do you view as the most significant?

 2. Conflict Over Status of Territories pp 247-248
REMEMBER…As you read the chapter, jot down your notes in the middle column. Consider your notes to be elaborations on the Objectives and Main
Ideas presented in the left column and in the subtitles of the text. INCLUDE IN YOUR NOTES ALL SIGNIFICANT VOCABULARY AND PEOPLE. After read
and take notes, thoughtfully, analyze what you read by answering the questions in the right column. Remember this step is essential to your processing of
information. Completing this guide thoughtfully will increase your retention as well as your comprehension!

Key Concepts
& Main Ideas Notes Analysis

Conflict Over Status of Territories… The Mexican-American War ended in 1848. What
was the impact of the Mexican Cession on
The institution American politics?
of slavery and
its attendant Mexico gave a lots of land to the U.S. which
ideological Free-Soil Movement…
debates, along brought up the question of slave expansion
with regional Did not want end of slavery but they wanted to keep the West a land - new land created more divisions
economic and of opportunity for whites only so that the white majority would not
demographic
have to compete with the labor of slaves or free blacks; Free-Soil
changes,
territorial party in 1848 in North, saying, "free soil, free labor, free men";
expansion in advocated free homesteads (public land grants to small farmers) and
the 1840s and internal improvements
1850s, and
cultural How was the impact of the Mexican Cession in
differences 1848 similar to the impact of the Louisiana
between the Southern Position… Purchase in 1803? Make sure your answer
North and the Anti-slavery Whigs who opposed both the Texas annexation and the includes specific evidence connecting the broad
South, all Mexican War on moral grounds. context of both events.
intensified Free-Soilers whose defection threatened to destroy the Democratic
sectionalism. party., conscience Whigs and anti-slavery Democrats were known as - both got land for $15 M
this - wondered about the social issue if
slavery should be allowed or not

Popular Sovereignty…

in the mid-1800s, a term referring to the idea that each territory

could decide for itself whether or not to allow slavery by popular vote

Election of 1848…
Lewis Cass democratic senator who proposed popular
sovereignty to settle the slavery question in the territories lost
the presidential election in 1848 against Zachary Taylor but
continued to advocate his solution to the slavery issue
throughout the 1850s. Taylor was a general and hero of the
Mexican-American war. He was elected to the presidency in
1848, representing the Whig party. He was in office during
the crisis of California's admittance to the Union but died in
office before a compromise could be worked out, and left vice
president Filmore to finalize a deal between the hostile north
and south. Advocated admission of California and New
Mexico to US.

3. The Compromise of 1850, pp 248-249 (this is a major event in the framework… make sure you thoroughly understand it!)

Key Concepts & Main

Ideas Notes Analysis
 The Compromise of 1850… What was the most contentious aspect of
this compromise? Explain and defend your
Repeated attempts
Henry Clay proposed to admit California to the Union as a free answer
at political compromise
failed to calm tensions state, divide the remainder of the Mexican Cession into New Fugitive Slave Law
over slavery and often Mexico and Utah (popular sovereignty), give land in dispute - required citizens to help look for
made sectional tensions between Texas and New Mexico to federal government in return fugitive slaves
worse, breaking down the for paying Texas' public debt of 10 million, ban slave trade in D. C., - denied a fugitive's right to a trial.
trust between sectional but permit slaveholding, and new Fugitive Slave Law to be
leaders and culminating enforced.
in the bitter election of
1860, followed by the
secession of southern
states.

National leaders made a

variety of proposals to
resolve the issue of
slavery in the territories,
including the
Compromise of 1850…
  Before the Compromise of 1850

This compromise took several months to

hammer out. One of the most famous
speeches regarded this crisis.

“Peaceable secession! Peaceable secession! The concurrent agreement of all the members of this great republic
to separate! A voluntary separation, with alimony on one side and on the other. Why, what would be the result?
Where is the line to be drawn? What States are to seceded? What is to remain American? What am I to be? An
American no longer? Am I to become a sectional man, a local man, a separatist, with no country in common with
the gentlemen who sit around me here, or who fill the other house of Congress? Heaven forbid! Where is the flag
of the republic to remain? Where is the eagle still to tower? Or is he to cower, and shrink, and fall to the ground?
Why, Sir, our ancestors, our fathers and our grandfathers, those of them that are yet living amongst us with
prolonged lives, would rebuke and reproach us; and our children and our grandchildren would cry out shame
upon us, if we of this generation should dishonor these ensigns of the power of the government and the harmony
of that Union which is every day felt among us with so much joy and gratitude.”
Seventh of March Speech, Daniel Webster, 1850

After the
Compromise
4. Agitation Over Slavery, pp 249-251
Key Concepts
& Main Ideas Notes Analysis

The institution of slavery Agitation Over Slavery… Explain how abolitionists

and its attendant impacted state institutions and
ideological debates, along An Illinois statesman who ran against Lincoln, Bell, and American culture.
with regional economic Breckenridge in the 1860 presidential election on a popular
and demographic sovereignty platform for slavery, Douglas also authored the Kansas- abolitionists wanted slaves to
changes, territorial
expansion in the 1840s
Nebraska Act, which repealed the Missouri Compromise and be free
and 1850s, and cultural heightened the slavery debate. 13th President of the United States, - caused disputes
differences between the serving from 1850 until 1853, and the last member of the Whig Party - an example was the
North and the South, all to hold that office. He was the second Vice President to assume the Underground Railroad
intensified sectionalism. Presidency upon the death of a sitting President, succeeding Zachary
Taylor. Passed Compromise of 1850, sent Matthew C. Perry to Japan
The North’s expanding to request opening of ports.
economy and its
increasing reliance on a
free-labor
manufacturing economy Fugitive Slave Law…
contrasted with the
Congress passed a second version of this law in 1850 to establish
South’s dependence on an
fines on federal officials who refused to enforce the law or from
economic system
whom a runaway slave escaped, to establish fines on individuals who
characterized by slave-
helped slaves escape, to ban runaway slaves from testifying on their
based agriculture and
own behalf in court,
slow population growth.

National leaders made a

variety of proposals to Explain how the arts impacted
resolve the issue of slavery movements for social and
Enforcement and Opposition…
in the territories, including political change in the
the Compromise of 1850 give special commissioners power to enforce the law Antebellum Era.
and the Kansas–
Nebraska Act.
allowed people to see another
Abolitionists, although a perspective on slavery
minority in the North, - new ideas were created
mounted a highly visible
campaign against slavery,
adopting strategies of Underground Railroad…
resistance ranging from
fierce arguments against Escape passage for slaves to the north. One major conductor of this
the institution and passage was Harriet Tubman who escaped in 1849.
assistance in helping
slaves escape to
Horace Greely(an abolitionist who
willingness to use violence
also started the New York Tribune;
to achieve their goals.
Books on Slavery – Pro and Con a very influential newspaper)
distributed Impending Crisis of the
States’ rights, South across the South in an effort
Uncle Tom’s Cabin…
nullification, and racist to increase southern white support
stereotyping provided the Influential book about the conflict between a slave named Tom and the brutal for abolition. Why would an
foundation for the abolitionist embrace this book?
white slave owners Simon Legree
Southern defense of
slavery as a positive good. book allowed pro-slavery
people to see how their
economy was doing bad in
the south due to slaves
Did you know… what an “Uncle Tom” is? Uncle Tom, the title character, was initially seen
as a noble, long-suffering Christian slave. In more recent years, however, his name has
become an epithet directed towards African-Americans who are accused of ‘selling out’ to
whites. Stowe intended Tom to be a "noble hero and praiseworthy person.” Throughout the
book, far from allowing himself to be exploited, Tom stands up for his beliefs and is
grudgingly admired even by his enemies.

Impending Crisis of the South…

moved a generation of northerners as well as many Europeans to regard

 all slave owners as cruel and inhuman

Comparing the Free and Slave States in the 1850s (Chart)…

Southern Reaction…

Southerners believed it to be proof of northern prejudice

Effect of Law and Literature…

Stephen Douglas's bill to open western territories, promote a

transcontinental railroad, and boost his presidential ambitions;
it divided the Nebraska territory into two territories and used
popular sovereignty to decide slavery in the region. Among
Douglas's goals in making this proposal was to populate
Kansas in order to make more attractive a proposed route for
a transcontinental railroad that ended in Chicago, in his home
state of Illinois.
5. National Parties in Crisis and Extremists and Violence, pp 252-255
KANSAS – NEBRASKA!!! KNOW IT WELL!!!

Key Concepts & Main Notes Analysis

Ideas

National Parties in Crisis… Compare and contrast the Kansas

Immigrants in the U.S. began to pose a threat to the "natives" Nebraska Act of 1854 to the Missouri
Intensified by Compromise of 1820. Identify a minimum of
because of their unknown languages and cultures. Some
expansion and 2 similarities and 2 differences.
deepening regional feared that the foreigners would outnumber them and
divisions, debates over eventually overrun the country. This hostility rekindled the Similarities:
slavery and other spirit of European religious wars, resulting in clashes between
economic, cultural, and the Protestants and Catholics. Some nativities formed this 1. Admitted states into union
political issues led the party in New York called the "Order of the Star Spangled
nation into civil war. Banner". The members refused to indentify themselves and
2. Questioned slavery
would say they know nothing. They were an anti-Catholic
National leaders made
a variety of proposals group, until it subsided and slavery became the focal issue. Differences:
to resolve the issue of Political party formed in 1854 in response to the Kansas-
slavery in the Nebraska Act; it combined remnants of Whig, Free Soil, and 1. Kansas Nebraska Act determined slavery
territories, including Know-Nothing Parties as well as disgruntled Democrats. on popular sovereignty
the Compromise of
1850 and the
Although not abolitionist, it sought to block the spread of
Kansas–Nebraska slavery in the territories. It also favored tariffs, homesteads,
2. Missouri was a slave state and kansa
Act. and a transcontinental railroad. wasn’t.
The second party
system ended when
the issues of slavery The Election of 1852…
Which one was more successful? Explain
and anti-immigrant An American military officer, explorer, the first candidate of the Republican your reasoning.
nativism weakened Party for the office of President of the United States The Missouri Compromise because it
loyalties to the two (Election of 1856), and the first presidential candidate of a major party to run delayed the slavery debate and made a
major parties and on a platform in opposition to slavery. Won 11 of the 16 free states. division line
fostered the The 15th President of the United States (1857-1861). He tried
emergence of
to maintain a balance between proslavery and antislavery
sectional parties,
most notably the factions, but his moderate views angered radicals in both
Republican Party North and South, and he was unable to forestall the secession
in the North and the of South Carolina on December 20, 1860.
Midwest.

The Kansas-Nebraska Act (1854)…

A transportation company set up to transport emigrants to Kansas Territory
to shift the balance of power so that Free-Staters rather than slave holders
would decide whether Kansas would enter the Union in regards to the
slavery question.

If the canning of Sumner occurred in modern

times, how might the outcome be different?
What is the difference in Antebellum America
and modern America that paints such a
Extremists and Violence… different picture?
on May 24th and 25th, 1856 where this abolitionist man and If it happened in modern times Brook could
his band of settlers and sons set out to attack a proslavery have been charged for hitting sumner with a
farm in this area in Kansas and had brutally killed five cane. The difference is the protective laws.
settlers. This attack was in response to the proslavery forces'
attacks upon the free soil town of Lawrence during the
"Bleeding Kansas."
“Bleeding Kansas”…
Kansas was being disputed for free or slave soil during 1854-1857, by
popular sovereignty. In 1857, there were enough free-soilers to overrule the
slave-soilers. So many people were feuding that disagreements eventually
led to killing in Kansas between pro-slavery and anti-slavery forces.

Canning of Senator Sumner…

Sumner was an MA senator and unyielding foe of slavery. He
was physically attacked by Senator Brooks of SC (caning) in
retaliation for a two-day speech made denouncing the
proslavery Missourians who had crossed into Kansas and
Brook's pro-slavery uncle who supported the Missourians-
showed the split of the government

New Parties…

Know-Nothing Party…
National Parties in Crisis and Extremists and Violence Continued…
Key Concepts & Main Notes Analysis
Ideas

Birth of the Republican Party… Compare the impact of nativism to the impact
of slavery on the American political system
The second party from 1848-1860.
system ended when
the issues of slavery
and anti-immigrant
nativism weakened
loyalties to the two
major parties and
fostered the
emergence of
The Election 1856…
sectional parties,
most notably the
Republican Party
in the North and the
Midwest.

6. Constitutional Issues, pp 255-257… KNOW DRED SCOTT!

Key Concepts & Notes Analysis

Main Ideas

National leaders Constitutional Issues… Support or refute the assertion that

made a variety the Dred Scott case was the worst
of proposals to Supreme Court ruling in American
resolve the Lecompton Constitution… history. Defend your answer.
issue of slavery
in the Support because the supreme
The antislavery forces formed a legislature in Topeka, Kansas, while court believed that popular
territories,
including the those favoring slavery made their capital at Lecompton. When the sovereignty was
Compromise proslavery body drafted its so-called Lecompton Constitution and unconstitutional
of 1850, the submitted it to Congress for statehood in 1857, Buchanan pressed for
Kansas– its acceptance, even after the constitution failed a popular vote in
Nebraska Act, Kansas. Congress did not accept it.
and the Dred
Scott decision,
but these
ultimately Dred Scott v. Sandford (1857)…
failed to reduce
Which event was a more significant
sectional turning point, The Marshall Court’s
conflict. 1803 Marbury v. Madison ruling or the
An 1857 Supreme Court case that finished with Chief Justice Roger
B. Taney's ruling that African Americans, whether free or slave, were Taney Court’s 1857 Dred Scott v.
Sandford ruling? Defend your view.
not citizens of the U.S.; that living in a free state or territory, even for
many years, did not free slaves; and that the Missouri Compromise Marbury vs Madison because it
was unconstitutional - meaning that slavery should be allowed in all includes the judicial review and
states, so Congress did NOT have the power to ban slavery that reviewed the
constitutionality of something
 Lincoln-Douglas Debates…

During the race to become Senator Lincoln asked to have multiple

debates with Douglas. Certain topics of these debates were slavery,
how to deal with slavery, and where slavery should be allowed.
Although Lincoln lost the election to Douglas, he was known
throughout the country because of the debates.
7. The Road to Secession, pp 257-260

Key Concepts & Notes Analysis

Main Ideas

The institution of The Road to Secession… Support or refute the assertion that
slavery and its house-divided speech made by Abraham Lincoln before he was elected stating that John Brown was a martyr.
attendant the United States will either be all slave or all free because it can't be half and half
ideological and still succeed. support, because he was hanged
debates, along
with regional
Freeport doctrine developed by Stephen Douglas that said the exclusion of slavery in for thinking slaves should stand up
a territory could be determined by the refusal of the voters to enact any laws that for their rights
economic and
demographic would protect slave property. It was unpopular with Southerners, and thus cost him
changes, the election.
territorial
expansion in the
1840s and 1850s, John Brown’s Raid at Harper’s Ferry…
and cultural Occurred in October of 1859. John Brown of Kansas attempted to
differences create a major revolt among the slaves. He wanted to ride down the
between the North Compare the issues and results of
river and provide the slaves with arms from the North, but he failed to the 1860 presidential election to
and the South, all
get the slaves organized. Brown was captured. The effects of those of the 1852 election.
intensified
sectionalism. Harper's Ferry Raid were as such: the South saw the act as one of
treason and were encouraged to separate from the North, and Brown
Abolitionists, became a martyr to the northern abolitionist cause. 1852
although a - last time to see Whigs against
minority in the Democrats with decline of Whigs
North, mounted a - issues were Fugitive Slave Law
highly visible and extension of slavery
campaign against
slavery, adopting
1860
strategies of The Election of 1860…
resistance ranging - 4 way contest
from fierce - main issues were slavery,
Lincoln won as a republican candidate
arguments against Kansas-Nebraska Act, and case of
the institution and Dred Scott
Lincoln, the Republican candidate, won because the Democratic party was split over
assistance in - led to rise of Republican party
helping slaves slavery. As a result, the South no longer felt like it has a voice in politics and a
escape to number of states seceded from the Union.
willingness to use
Breakup of the Democratic Party…
violence to
Split over slavery
achieve their
goals. In what ways were the rationales of
secession following the election of
Abraham Lincoln in 1860 similar to the
The second
rationales of the South Carolina
party system
Exposition and Protest and Ordinance
ended when the of Nullification during the Jackson Era?
issues of slavery Republican Nomination of Lincoln… SC declared secession 1st
and anti-
immigrant - they thought the north was
nativism favored more like they were in
weakened the nullification crisis
loyalties to the
two major - main question in the Jackson
parties and era was tariffs
fostered the A Fourth Political party…
- during Lincoln's time the main
emergence of
sectional parties,
question was slavery
most notably the
Republican
Party in the
North and the Election Results…
Midwest.
Secession of the Deep South…
The Road to Secession continued
Key Concepts & Main Ideas Notes Analysis

Repeated attempts at Crittenden Compromise… Compare and Contrast the

political compromise 1860 - attempt to prevent Civil War by Senator Crittenden - offered a Crittenden Compromise and the
failed to calm tensions Constitutional amendment recognizing slavery in the territories south of the Wilmot Proviso. Explain the
over slavery and often significance of this comparison.
made sectional 36º30' line, noninterference by Congress with existing slavery, and
tensions worse, compensation to the owners of fugitive slaves - defeated by Republicans crittenden
breaking down the trust
between sectional
- would prevent the division
leaders and culminating in the U.S. in the south
in the bitter election of - would prevent a possible
1860, followed by the civil war
secession of southern
states
Wilmot
Lincoln’s election on a - required the ban of slavery
free soil platform in in land that was gained from
the election of 1860 led the Mexican American war
various Southern
leaders to conclude that Sets found in the same
their states must secede folder
from the Union,
precipitating civil war.

8. Historical Perspectives: What Caused the Civil War? pp 260-261

Civil War was caused by slavery… Civil War was caused by conflicting Civil War was caused by opposing Civil War was caused by a failure of
interpretations of the Constitution… economic systems… compromise…

Which viewpoint do you agree with most? Explain your choice.

How it all broke down… literally… a brief review…
Coming Apart over… Northern extremists (radical Moderates (Northern “Peace” Southern extremists and
Republicans, some moderate Democrats, pro-Union Southerners, sympathizers (including Northern
Republicans, and radical Some moderate Republicans) copperheads)
abolitionists)

Slavery is… A wicked sin that must be abolished Maybe good, maybe bad, but definitely An inalienable right, sanctioned in the
at once, before Christ’s return! not worth getting killed over… Bible and supported in the
Constitution and an integral part of
the Southern economy…

The government could spend billions

Possible remedies include… Remedy? We said abolish it! And to buy out slave owners… maybe Meddling Yankees could mind their
no, we won’t pay for a buyout! return slaves to Africa… or maybe own (bleep) business.
just let the states solve the issue in
their own time…
Should include slave states even if
Future expansion… Cannot include any new slave Should adhere to the original 360 they are above 360 30’ if voters
states, period. 30’ border laid out in 1820 choose to have it.

Tariffs on imports… Are critical to encourage industry by Should probably be repealed or Are a Yankee industrialist plot to
protecting against British dumping lowered to avoid provoking foreign provoke foreign tariffs on cotton exports
of surplus goods which will ruin the counter-tariffs and southern rebellion and ruin the Southern economy.
Northern economy.

States’ rights… Don’t include the right to secede Allow slavery in new states if the Allow slavery in new states and
(and we wont’ allow slavery to people vote for it, but not allow secession.
spread). secession.

Secession is… Treason! Tragedy! A Second American Revolution!

Source: The Mental Floss History of the United States by Erik Sass

Which viewpoint do you agree with most? Does that make you a radical or a moderate?

Reading Guide written by Rebecca Richardson, Allen High School

Sources include but are not limited to: 2015 edition of AMSCO’s United States History Preparing for the Advanced Placement Examination ,
College Board Advanced Placement United States History Framework, and other sources as cited in document and collected/adapted over 20 years of teaching and collaborating..