Topic 8

What was the North’s advantage in the Civil War?

• its strong industrial economy

• Northerners’ with southern land

• Defending their homeland gave northerners a sense of purpose

• Cotton

The battle between the Virginia and the Monitor resulted in both ships withdrawing because

• The fatalities were so high.

• The damage to each was so great.

• Neither could seriously damage the other

• Neither captain could maneuver his ship effectively.

Why might some southerners have been surprised when Lincoln was elected President?

• Lincoln had not previously been involved in politics or government.

• Lincoln’s name had not appeared on ballots in most southern states.

• Lincoln had more support than the nominee from the South.

• Lincoln’s nomination had not been announced in the states of the South.

 Why did the Confederates finally surrender at Appomattox?

• The Confederates had lost every battle leading up to Appomattox.

• Lee knew that the Union was outnumbered by the Confederates.

• The Confederates had run out of their weapons and ammunition.

• Lee knew the Confederates were no longer in a position to fight effectively.

Read the following excerpt from a Confederate soldier’s letter home to his family in 1862.

“Our regiment did not have many wounded nor killed but a good many taken prisoners. . . . Pa, I want you to have me a pair of boots made. Those shoes you had made for me ripped all to pieces. Our regiment used everything we had. I have no blanket nor any clothes but what I have got.”

What aspect of the war does this soldier's letter exhibit?

• Many soldiers were killed or wounded in most battles.

• About 25 percent of Confederate soldiers deserted during the war.

• Soldiers had to forage the countryside for food.

• Soldiers suffered from poor conditions and inadequate supplies.

How did the Fugitive Slave Act of 1850 strengthen the Fugitive Slave Act of 1793?

• The new law required all citizens to help catch African Americans trying to escape slavery, and be subject to a fine or jail time if they refused.

• The new law did not make it compulsory for northerners to participate in the capture of runaways if they did not support slavery.

• The new law set up higher incentives for judges who freed slaves rather than send them back to the South.

• Made it so judges would not help slave owners

 Why did the Mexican Cession intensify debates about slavery in the United States?

• Slavery was already permitted in these new territories.

• The Wilmot Proviso allowed slavery in all territories gained by the Mexican Cession.

• The nation needed to decide whether slavery would be allowed in these new territories.

• The people in the Mexican Cession territories wanted slavery while the rest of the nation did not.

What was one reason they wrote the Compromise of 1850?

• to end the forced return of runaway enslaved African Americans

• to allow California to enter the Union as a free state

• to extend the slave trade in Washington, D.C.

• to ban the slave trade between slave states

How did Uncle Tom’s Cabin affect attitudes toward slavery?

• It made southerners reflect upon how they treated enslaved people.

• It made northerners more supportive of the Compromise of 1850

• It made southerners more determined to secede from the Union.

• It convinced many northerners they could no longer ignore the moral issue of slavery.

The one reason that the South supported the Kansas-Nebraska Act was that the South

• knew the act would not be enforced.

• approved of popular sovereignty.

• supported Stephen Douglas.

• hoped that Kansas would become a slave state.