Sectionalism & Slavery Expansion
What was the most divisive part of the Compromise of 1850?
Fugitive Slave Act.
What major U.S. acquisition came from the war with Mexico?
Mexican Cession (1848).
Name one major long-term cause of the Civil War identified by historians.
Slavery, economic differences, political failures, etc.
Which terrorist organization used violence to undermine Reconstruction governments?
Ku Klux Klan.
Which labor system did Southerners claim was more “humane” than Northern factory work?
Slavery
What major 1857 Supreme Court decision effectively repealed the Missouri Compromise?
Dred Scott v. Sandford.
What development most enabled western migration in the 1860s–70s?
Railroad expansion.
Which 1850s event demonstrated violent conflict over popular sovereignty?
“Bleeding Kansas.”
What laws attempted to limit freedpeople’s economic and social mobility after the Civil War?
Black Codes.
Which regional political movement prioritized states’ rights?
Southern Democratic pro-slavery ideology.
Which proposed congressional measure attempted to ban slavery in land gained from the Mexican-American War?
Wilmot Proviso.
Which immigrant group primarily settled in Northern urban centers in the 1840s?
Irish immigrants.
Which party opposed the expansion of slavery during the 1850s?
Republican Party.
What arrangement trapped many freedpeople in long-term cycles of debt?
Sharecropping + crop lien system.
What belief held that America was chosen by God to expand?
Manifest Destiny.
What famous book intensified Northern antislavery sentiment in the 1850s?
Uncle Tom’s Cabin.
Which U.S. land acquisition completed the continental shape of the United States and was purchased to facilitate a southern transcontinental railroad route?
The Gadsden Purchase (1853).
Which northern belief saw slavery as immoral but prioritized stopping its spread?
Free Soil ideology.
What did Southern critics mean by “bayonet rule”?
Military enforcement/government backed by force.
What party of the 1850s opposed immigration and Catholic influence?
Know-Nothing (American) Party.
Why did the Kansas-Nebraska Act inflame sectional tensions?
repealed the Missouri Compromise; allowed popular sovereignty.
Which U.S. naval expedition forced Japan to open trade relations in the 1850s, reflecting America’s growing Pacific presence?
Commodore Matthew Perry’s expedition.
Which attempt at compromise was overturned by Kansas-Nebraska?
Missouri Compromise.
According to historians, what ultimately doomed Reconstruction?
Weak Northern will + strong Southern resistance.
What idea guided debates over slave vs. free states in new territories?
Popular sovereignty and the expansion question.