Going West
This belief that it was America's God-given destiny to acquire new land motivated westward expansion.
What is manifest destiny?
This author coined the phrase "Manifest Destiny", saying that "America has been chosen for this mission among all the nations of the world."
Who was John O'Sullivan?
This state's application for statehood in 1819 was controversial because it would have upset the balance of power in Congress.
What is Missouri?
What is popular sovereignty?
This law made it harder for escaped slaves to live freely in the North.
What is the Fugitive Slave Law of 1850?
American soldiers were attacked by the Mexican army along this river, which the US claimed was the proper border between the two countries.
What is the Rio Grande?
This was the name of the land acquisition that doubled the size of the US, and eventually became Missouri, Kansas, Nebraska, and much more.
What is the Louisiana Purchase?
We practiced this historical thinking skill when we compared documents to see if they agreed or disagreed about what happened.
What is corroboration?
This state became the first free state on the West coast, balancing out Texas when it was admitted to the union.
What is California?
Stephen Douglas said this is how 7 of the 13 original states became free.
Through popular sovereignty.
Illinois Senator Stephen Douglas proposed the Kansas Nebraska Act in an effort to get this built.
What is the Transcontinental Railroad?
North of this line would be free territory - besides Missouri, that is.
What is the 36-30 line?
This is why Southern politicians didn't want to let Kansas and Nebraska become states.
What is, they would be free states because they were north of the 36-30 line?
This is why South Carolina Senator James Hammond thought cotton was an invincible king.
What is, the entire world's economy was dependent on Southern cotton?
Formerly part of Massachusetts, this land became its own state to preserve the balance of free and slave states.
What is Maine?
Abraham Lincoln said that he supported the idea of self government, but it doesn't apply to the question of slavery for this reason.
What is, slavery violates the principle of self government because it means governing another person without their consent?
Because the city was surrounded by slave states, Congress settled on this legal compromise for Washington, DC.
What is banning the slave trade in Washington, DC?
To avoid tensions over how to carve up the large territory gained from Mexico, Congress decided to do this with the New Mexico and Utah Territories.
What is nothing? Or, what is take no stance on slavery.
These two territories were gained as part of the War with Mexico.
What are Utah and New Mexico
This was one reason Thomas Jefferson was worried about the Missouri Compromise.
Correct answers could include:
- didn't settle the slavery question, just put it off
- geographic line = arbitrary, won't fix the problem, won't change minds
- slavery = unsustainable, can't hold onto it
After winning independence, Texas requested this, but was turned down.
What was annexation, or to become a state.
Stephen Douglas thought that his plan of letting settlers vote in Kansas and Nebraska was basically the same as this earlier compromise.
What was the Compromise of 1850, which said that the federal government wouldn't tell the New Mexico and Utah territories what to do re: slavery?
This 1854 law let settlers vote on slavery, but outraged Northerners who saw it as a repeal of the Missouri Compromise.
What is the Kansas-Nebraska Act?
Thomas Jefferson referred to this compromise as "holding the wolf by the ears", an unsustainable situation!
What is the Missouri Compromise?
Hinton Helper believed many native Southerners moved west for this reason.
What is to find jobs because the work in the South was being done by slaves who weren't paid?
Boston minister Theodore Parker believed this conflict was really just a pretext for gaining more land and expanding slavery.
What is the Mexican-American War?
This is the reason Congress kept trying to preserve a balance between free and slave states as the country expanded west.
What is, so neither side's interests could dominate in Congress?
Abraham Lincoln said this was the reason the founding fathers supported slavery, and urged Americans to go back to this way of thinking.
What is, thinking of it as a necessity (necessary evil)?
This part of the Compromise of 1850 made civilians responsible for helping capture runaway slaves.
What is the Fugitive Slave Act/Law?
(Tough question, not on the test!) This man, who was pivotal in the Mexican-American War, would later go on to become president of the United States.
Who was General Zachary Taylor?