Knowledge Check (Causes of the Civil War)

Front

What were the main provisions that came from the Missouri Compromise?

Back

Missouri was admitted as a slave state, and Maine as a free state, while slavery was banned north of the 36°30' parallel.

Front

How did Manifest Destiny contribute to increasing tensions over slavery in the 1840s?

Back

It heightened debates over whether new territories acquired through expansion should permit slavery.

Front

Which of the following was NOT a provision of the Compromise of 1850? California was admitted as a free state. The slave trade was abolished in Washington, D.C. Slavery was banned in all territories acquired from the Mexican-American War. A stronger Fugitive Slave Act was enacted.

Back

Slavery was banned in all territories acquired from the Mexican-American War.

Front

What was the primary cause of the Mexican-American War?

Back

Disputes over the boundary between Texas and Mexico.

Front

How did the Fugitive Slave Act of 1850 affect the abolitionist movement in the North?

Back

It galvanized and encouraged Northern abolitionists to oppose slavery

Front

What was the significance of the Supreme Court’s decision in Dred Scott v. Sandford?

Back

It ruled that African Americans were not citizens and had no legal rights.

Front

Why was Uncle Tom's Cabin by Harriet Beecher Stowe significant in the years leading to the Civil War?

Back

It exposed the moral evils of slavery, increasing Northern opposition to the institution.

Front

How did Abraham Lincoln’s election in 1860 lead to the Civil War?

Back

Southern states viewed his election as a direct threat to slavery and began seceding from the Union.

Front

What was the primary cause of the violence known as “Bleeding Kansas”?

Back

The struggle between pro-slavery and anti-slavery settlers to determine whether Kansas would allow slavery.

Front

Why did John Brown’s raid on Harpers Ferry in 1859 heighten tensions between the North and South?

Back

Brown’s actions were seen in the North as heroic and in the South as evidence of a Northern conspiracy against slavery.