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Y216: The USA in the 19th Century: Westward Expansion and Civil War 1803–c.1890

The growth of sectional tension 1850–1861: Republicans, Dred Scott, the 1860 election and secession

  • 2 things to know
  • Unit group 2

Overview

Recall questions on the Republican Party, Dred Scott, the Freeport Doctrine, Lincoln on slavery, John Brown, the Democratic split, the 1860 election, secession, failed compromise and the start of the fighting.

What you need to know

Answer each one before you reveal it.

Your recallNot started
Who and when

Why did the Democrats split in 1860?

Numbers

How did secession proceed?

Questions from this subtopic

Each one with the model answer underneath.

  1. 1

    Why was the Republican Party formed?

    Model answer

    It was created in 1854 by opponents of the Kansas-Nebraska Act, uniting former Whigs, Free Soilers and antislavery Democrats behind the demand that slavery be excluded from the territories.

  2. 2

    State the Supreme Court's ruling in the Dred Scott case.

    Model answer

    In 1857 Taney held that a Black American could not be a citizen and so could not sue, that residence in free territory did not confer freedom, and that Congress had no power to ban slavery in the territories.

  3. 3

    Why was the Dred Scott decision so damaging?

    Model answer

    It destroyed the constitutional basis of both the Republican programme and popular sovereignty, suggested slavery could not lawfully be excluded anywhere, and convinced many northerners that a slave power controlled the courts.

  4. 4

    Explain the Freeport Doctrine.

    Model answer

    In the 1858 debates Douglas argued that a territory could still keep slavery out by refusing to pass the local police regulations it needed, an answer that saved his Senate seat but split him from the southern Democrats.

  5. 5

    What was Lincoln's position on slavery before 1860?

    Model answer

    He held that slavery was a moral wrong that must be excluded from the territories and left to die out, while denying any intention of interfering with it in the states where it already existed.

  6. 6

    What did John Brown attempt in 1859, and how did the sections react?

    Model answer

    He seized the federal arsenal at Harpers Ferry hoping to arm a slave rising; the North was divided but many mourned him as a martyr, and the South took northern sympathy as proof that its neighbours wanted servile war.

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