Ch. 12 A Nation Comes Apart

Why did people in the North and the South have such different views about slavery? (SS8H5a)

• The South's economy depended on slavery and the North's economy did not.

• Most people in the South believed slavery was morally wrong.

• Northerners thought that slavery was hindering the nation's economic growth.

• Southerners wanted to eliminate slavery gradually; northerners all at once.

The belief that states are sovereign—subject to no higher authority except for powers specifically granted to the national government in the United States Constitution—came to be known as states' rights. Which of the following WAS NOT a belief of states' rights supporters? (SS8H5a)

• The U.S. Constitution was an agreement between independent states, and just as states had joined the Union, they could also secede from it.

• If a state believed that a federal law violated the U.S. Constitution, the state could declare the law "null and void" and refuse to enforce it.

• States had the right to allow and promote slavery as a part of the economic system, and the federal government did not have the right to interfere.

• The creation of the Union by the states was a binding agreement, impossible to break.

What was Abraham Lincoln's official stance on slavery during the presidential campaign of 1860? (SS8H5a)

• The African slave trade should be ended immediately.

• Slavery should not be allowed to spread into new United States territories.

• A constitutional convention should be held to resolve the issue.

• All slaves in the United States should be freed within ten years.

Staunch southern proponents of states' rights believed that states had the right of nullification. Which of the following BEST defines nullification?

• secede from the Union if necessary

• refuse to enforce a federal law within state limits

• dismiss members of the Supreme Court over disagreement with their rulings

• call into question a presidential election's results

Which BEST describes the Supreme Court's decision in the Dred Scott case?

• A slave had the right to sue for freedom in a federal court.

• A slave who lived on free soil for any length of time was free.

• A slave was only a citizen after he or she purchased freedom.

• A slave was not a citizen but rather the property of an owner.

Which of the following was the ultimate undoing of the Georgia Platform and the Compromise of 1850?

• passage of the Kansas and Nebraska Act in 1854

• admission of Oregon and California to the Union in 1851

• American victory in the Mexican War

• Supreme Court decision in State v. Mann

In December 1850, Georgia held a convention that adopted the Georgia Platform which

• refused to accept the Missouri Compromise and the Compromise of 1850

• proposed immediate secession from the Union in January of 1851

• accepted the Compromise of 1850 if the Northen forced the Fugitive Slave Bill

• affirmed Georgia's commitment to the Union, disregarding other southern states

The Missouri Compromise (1820) and the Compromise of 1850

• banned slavery in new states entering the Union

• permitted slavery in new states entering the Union

• declared that any state which seceded from the Union would be in rebellion

• attempted to preserve the Union and a sense of national unity

What is the best definition for abolitionists during the antebellum period?

• groups of individuals who wanted to dissolve the Union

• leaders in the north who called for the Constitution to be abolished

• people who protested against slavery and fought for it to be made illegal

• officials who wanted the Dred Scott ruling declared unconstitutional

Read the above quote from an 1860 Atlanta newspaper. Who would MOST LIKELY have spoken those words?

• northern abolitionist

• southern plantation owner

• slave in the deep South

• free black in a border state