Chapter 19 questions due next Monday

Questions Chapter 19

Answer fully and in your own words.

1. What specific event provoked the writing of Uncle Tom’s Cabin? What impact did it have worldwide, especially politically? How did it impact the enforcement of the Fugitive Slave Law?
2. What previous movement had influenced Harriet Beecher Stowe? Use the index to find where her family (the Beechers) had been mentioned in our text, and summarize their claims to fame.
3. How did Uncle Tom’s Cabin help win the war for the North, both at home and abroad?
4. What was Hinton R. Helper’s argument against slavery? What was the fate of both Uncle Tom’s Cabin and the Impending Crisis of the South, politically and culturally?
5. What were Beecher’s Bibles? Who would use them, where, and why? Who were “border ruffians?”
6. Use specific facts to explain why it was illogical and impractical to think that Kansas would become a slave state. By 1855, what did the Southerners expect to happen to the status of Kansas?
7. How did “squatter sovereignty” lead to illegality and fraud in Kansas’ elections, and who was perpetrating the fraud? Make sure you discuss the dueling capitals and the “rape of Lawrence” as a symptom of this dysfunction.
8. Describe the misadventures of John Brown in this chapter, including his actions at Pottawatomie Creek as well as Harper’s Ferry.
9. What was the trick involved in the Lecompton Constitution? Why would the election over it then appear to be unrepresentative and fraudulent?
10. What stance did President Buchanan take on the Lecompton Constitution, and what effect did this have on the Democratic Party? What stand did Stephen Douglas take, and what were the consequences for his ambitions?
11. Explain why Charles Sumner got beaten to a pulp by Preston Brooks. Why did Brooks decided not to challenge Sumner to a duel? How did this incident– and the responses of the various sections of the country to it– reveal a widening and alarming increase in sectional tensions?
12. Why did Douglas not get the Democrats’ presidential nomination in 1856? What other parties and candidates ran against Buchanan—the Dem’s eventual choice? What were their campaign slogans and basic beliefs?
13. Why did Buchanan win? What were the reasons why the Republicans lost? Why was this probably a lucky thing? What was the significance about this election?
14. Explain the several parts of the Dred Scott decision. What were the consequences of each of these parts? What was considered to be the most outrageous part? How did the Republicans try to deny the legitimacy of the decision?
15. What were the causes of the Panic of 1857? What attitude did the South take after this panic, and why?
16. Why was the idea of free Western homesteads so controversial, both in the East and in the South? Why did Buchanan veto the act passed in 1860?
17. What two economic issues did the Panic provide to the Republicans for use in 1860?
18. Describe Lincoln’s background and early career?
19. What office did Lincoln attempt to gain in 1858? Who was his opponent? How were these officeholders chosen at this time in US history? Who won the seat in the end?
20. Describe the basic points of the argument of each of the candidates during the Lincoln-Douglas debates. How did these debates make Lincoln a national figure?
21. What happened to the Democrats? Explain the outcome of each of the conventions they held in 1860. What did their platform include?
22. Who supported the Constitutional Union Party, and why? Explain the nicknames associated with them. Who was their candidate?
23. What happened to the Republicans as they searched for a presidential candidate in 1860? List the main points of the Republican platform.
24. Explain the claims that Lincoln was a minority president and a sectional president. Why could the Dems not have won even if they had been unified?
25. Explain the timeline for the creation of the Confederate States of America, beginning, of course, with the actions of South Carolina.
26. What did John Crittenden propose? When did he propose it, and why did Lincoln reject it?
27. Explain the phrase “the despotic majority of numbers,” and “vassalage.” Why is the South described as a “subnation?”