The Crisis of the American Republic c.1840-1877

What The Crisis of the American Republic c.1840-1877 covers

The Crisis of the American Republic c.1840-1877 is examined in Units 2 and 4, the depth study — one of eight options, taken in two halves across the course. It covers north and South: two societies by 1840, the institution of slavery in the South, manifest Destiny, the Mexican War and the Wilmot Proviso, the Compromise of 1850 and the Fugitive Slave Law, abolitionism: Garrison, Stowe and John Brown, the Kansas-Nebraska Act and Bleeding Kansas, the Republican party and the Dred Scott decision, Lincoln and the Lincoln-Douglas debates, Harpers Ferry, the election of 1860 and secession, the resources, commanders and strategy of North and South, campaigns, the home fronts and the defeat of the South, Lincoln's war presidency and emancipation, Johnson, Congress and the Reconstruction amendments and radical Reconstruction, the Klan and Redemption.

The 14 subtopics

Each one has its own page. WJEC AS History students sit this topic in the first year.

• North and South: two societies by 1840What was meant by the phrase King Cotton and what free labour ideology meant to northerners.Open →
• The institution of slavery in the SouthSlave codes, religion enslaved people made for themselves and two rebellions that shaped white southern fears.Open →
• Manifest Destiny, the Mexican War and the Wilmot ProvisoWhat the phrase Manifest Destiny expressed, terms of the Wilmot Proviso and doctrine of popular sovereignty and who promoted it.Open →
• The Compromise of 1850 and the Fugitive Slave LawRecall questions on what California's admission threatened, the terms of the settlement, the recapture provisions and their enforcement in the North, and the reaction they provoked.Open →
• Abolitionism: Garrison, Stowe and John BrownAmerican Colonization Society and explain why abolitionists rejected it and gag rule.Open →
• The Kansas-Nebraska Act and Bleeding KansasTerm border ruffian, sack of Lawrence and caning of Charles Sumner.Open →
• The Republican party and the Dred Scott decisionRepublican party's central position on slavery, know-Nothing or American party and idea of the Slave Power.Open →
• Lincoln and the Lincoln-Douglas debatesAbraham Lincoln's background and early career and freeport Doctrine.Open →
• Harpers Ferry, the election of 1860 and secessionRemarkable about the geography of Lincoln's win and crittenden Compromise.Open →
• The resources, commanders and strategy of North and SouthAnaconda Plan, king Cotton diplomacy and stonewall Jackson's most celebrated campaign.Open →
• Campaigns, the home fronts and the defeat of the SouthAntietam remembered for in terms of casualties, pickett's Charge and sherman's March to the Sea.Open →
• Lincoln's war presidency and emancipationLincoln's management of his cabinet, what the Confiscation Acts provided and treating fugitives as contraband of war.Open →
• Johnson, Congress and the Reconstruction amendmentsLincoln's Ten Per Cent Plan and black Codes.Open →
• Radical Reconstruction, the Klan and RedemptionTerms carpetbagger and scalawag and sharecropping and explain why it spread.Open →

What you need to know

Answer each one before you reveal it.

Take The Crisis of the American Republic c.1840-1877 further

The same content, four other ways.

Commonly confused

Pairs that lose marks when they are blurred together.

• Abolitionist vs Free Soiler

  Abolitionist: one who demanded that slavery be ended everywhere in the country, at once and without compensation to owners. Free Soiler: One who wanted only to bar slavery from the western territories, often with no sympathy for Black Americans at all.

• Kansas-Nebraska Act vs Lecompton Constitution

  Kansas-Nebraska Act: the 1854 law creating two western territories and leaving the question of slavery in each to the settlers themselves. Lecompton Constitution: The pro-slavery frame of government drawn up in 1857 and submitted to a rigged vote, which Congress in the end refused.

• Emancipation Proclamation vs Thirteenth Amendment

  Emancipation Proclamation: the presidential war measure taking effect on the first day of 1863, which declared free the slaves in areas still in rebellion and reached nobody in the loyal border states. Thirteenth Amendment: The alteration to the constitution ratified at the end of 1865 abolishing slavery throughout the United States, except as punishment for crime.

Questions from this topic

Each one with the model answer underneath.

1. 1

   Describe the basis of the southern economy in the decades before the Civil War.

   Model answer

   It rested on commercial agriculture worked by enslaved labour, above all cotton, with tobacco, rice and sugar in older or coastal districts.

2. 2

   Why did cotton come to dominate the South after 1793?

   Model answer

   The cotton gin made it quick to separate the seed from short-staple cotton, so the crop could be grown profitably across the whole inland South and demand from British mills seemed limitless.

3. 3

   Roughly what share of American export earnings came from raw cotton by 1860?

   Model answer

   More than half, which is why southern leaders believed the world economy depended on them.

4. 4

   Explain what was meant by the phrase King Cotton.

   Model answer

   The southern claim that cotton was so essential to British and French industry that no great power would dare to act against the states that grew it.

5. 5

   How did the northern economy differ from the southern by the 1840s?

   Model answer

   The North combined family farming with factories, banking, shipping and a growing commercial network, so wage labour rather than slave labour was its normal form of work.

6. 6

   Explain what free labour ideology meant to northerners.

   Model answer

   The belief that a man who worked for wages could save, buy land or set up on his own account, so that labour led to independence rather than to permanent servitude.

What is inside Levo

Six ways to work the same material.

The Crisis of the American Republic c.1840-1877 revision questions

Is The Crisis of the American Republic c.1840-1877 examined at AS in WJEC History?

Yes. It sits in AS Unit 2 and A2 Unit 4, which you take in the first year, so it is on the AS paper as well as counting towards the full A level.

What does The Crisis of the American Republic c.1840-1877 cover in WJEC AS-Level History?

14 subtopics: north and south: two societies by 1840, the institution of slavery in the south, manifest destiny, the mexican war and the wilmot proviso, the compromise of 1850 and the fugitive slave law, abolitionism: garrison, stowe and john brown, the kansas-nebraska act and bleeding kansas, the republican party and the dred scott decision, lincoln and the lincoln-douglas debates, harpers ferry, the election of 1860 and secession, the resources, commanders and strategy of north and south, campaigns, the home fronts and the defeat of the south, lincoln's war presidency and emancipation, johnson, congress and the reconstruction amendments and radical reconstruction, the klan and redemption. Each one has its own page with questions and model answers.

How is The Crisis of the American Republic c.1840-1877 organised?

By the WJEC 601-5817-7 specification, subtopic by subtopic, so it matches the order you are taught it in.