Taxonomy Level: Evaluate/ Conceptual Knowledge – 5/B

Previous/future knowledge: From grades 4 and 8, students should have prior knowledge of abolitionism (4-6.2) and events and issues that led to the Civil War including slavery in the territories, states’ rights, the election of Abraham Lincoln (4-6.3) and the nullification crisis compromises over westward expansion, the Kansas-Nebraska Act and the Dred Scott decision (8-4.3). They should have evaluated the arguments of secessionists in South Carolina (8-4.4). In United States Government, students may evaluate significant documents in relation to the application of core principles such as the Ordinances of Secession (USG-2.5).

It is essential for the students to know: Democracy expanded in the United States as new territories were claimed and settled and as they entered the union as full partners under the terms of the Northwest Ordinance (USHC 1.4). However, expansion also led to the greatest challenge to democracy and the Southern elite became increasingly determined to maintain slavery.

As new western states applied for admission to the Union, sectionalism increased as the divisions between the interests of the regions became more and more evident. The struggle to maintain the balance of power between slave and free states in the federal government was rooted in the compromises made at the Constitutional Convention over representation in Congress, equal representation of the states in the Senate and representation proportional to population in the House (USHC 1.4). Because of the growing population of the northern and western states through immigration and westward movement, the South was losing the ability to protect southern interests in the House of Representatives despite the advantage given to them by being able to count three fifths of their slaves for the purposes of representation (USHC 1.4). This led Southerners to fight to maintain an equal number of slave and free states so that they would have equal numbers of votes in the Senate.

Tensions between the regions over the expansion of slavery increased between 1820 and 1860 until compromise was impossible. In 1820, Northern opposition to the application of Missouri to

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enter the union as a slave state, was overcome by a compromise that also admitted Maine as a free state and drew the line on the expansion of slavery in the territories at the 0’. The annexation of Texas was delayed for almost a decade because of the divisiveness of admitting another large slave state. Northerners saw the Polk administration’s willingness to give u the

0’ in Oregon, while at the same time provoking a war with Mexico over territories in the southwest as the influence of the slave power. During the Mexican War, Representative David Wilmot of Pennsylvania proposed that the United States assert that any territories won from Mexico be “free soil”, areas not open to competition of slave labor with that of free white labor. This Wilmot Proviso passed the House but was stopped in the Senate, giving further evidence to southerners that they must maintain the balance of slave and free states in order to protect their ‘ eculiar institution.’ The gold rush in 1849 sped the populating of California and its application for statehood as a free state which would again upset the balance. The Compromise of 1850 was cobbled together and introduced the principle of popular sovereignty which allowed the voters to decide if their state would be slave or free. California was admitted as a free state, the slavery question in other areas taken in the Mexican cession was to be decided based on popular sovereignty, the sale of slaves was prohibited in Washington DC, and a new fugitive slave law was to be enforced by the federal government. No one was happy with all parts of this compromise. Efforts by southerners to reclaim their fugitive slaves were countered by Northern states trying to circumvent the law and protect personal liberty. The compromise intensified the animosity between the sections.

Although the abolitionist movement kept the issue of slavery at the forefront of national conversation, abolitionists did not significantly impact the actions of the national government. The numerous petitions that abolitionists sent to Congress fell victim to the ‘gag rule.’ Abolitionist candidates running under the banner of the Liberty Party did not win office. However, abolitionists did impact the sentiments of the people in both the North and the South. The distribution of Garrison’s The Liberator through the mail was banned in the South and shows the fear that abolitionist sentiment struck in that region. It is important for students to understand most northerners were not abolitionists. Indeed, abolitionists were not popular and even sometimes attacked in the North. Abolitionists helped some slaves escape to the North on the Underground Railroad. However, the numbers of escaped slaves were relatively small, especially in the deep South because of distance to free land. Harriet Beecher Stowe’s book Uncle Tom’s Cabin reached many northern readers and evoked popular sympathy for slaves and anger over the Fugitive Slave Laws. The abolitionist John Brown’s actions at Har ers’ Ferry struck fear in the hearts of slave owners and made them both determined to protect slavery and very fearful of the intentions of northerners. Brown was hailed as a martyr by vocal Northern abolitionists leading Southerners to believe the feeling was generalized in the North and thus further divided the North and the South. The actions of abolitionists were significant but it was the controversy over the spread of slavery to the territories that eventually contributed to secession, war, and ultimately, abolition.

The ideas of popular sovereignty and free soil proved most divisive when the Kansas-Nebraska ct o ened the area north of the 30’ to deciding the question of slavery by popular vote, thus overturning the Missouri Compromise. Competition of pro-slavery and anti-slavery forces turned “Bleeding Kansas” into a battleground and led to the emergence of the Republican Party. The Republicans took the free soil position on the expansion of slavery into the territories. It is

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important to understand that the idea of free soil is not abolitionism. It means that non slave- owning whites did not want to compete with slave labor in the territories. It is essential that students understand that the Republicans and Abraham Lincoln, were NOT abolitionists. This is a common misunderstanding. The Dred Scott decision further called into question the democratic principle of popular sovereignty and made compromise impossible. The Supreme Court ruled that the Missouri Compromise was unconstitutional, despite the fact that the Kansas-Nebraska Act had made the Missouri Compromise null, because slaves were property and the Constitution protected the right of slave owners to their property regardless of where they took their slaves. Therefore, Congress could make no law restricting the expansion of slavery. Although this ruling narrowly applied to the territories, it led Northerners to fear that the Supreme Court, dominated by southern Democrats, might rule state laws against slavery unconstitutional and so the democratic process of popular sovereignty would not be effective in restricting the spread of slavery. The Democratic Party split along sectional lines and the Republican candidate Abraham Lincoln won the election of 1860 running on a latform of “free soil.”

Lincoln’s election in 18 0 led southern states to meet in convention and ass articles of secession stating that their rights as states were being violated by the federal government. The conflicting views of states’ rights and federal authority had been evolving in the United States since the ratification of the Constitution and the development of the first political parties (USHC 1.6). However, all of these previous disagreements, such as the nullification crisis (USHC 2.1) had been successfully resolved. It was the disagreement over expanding slavery into the territories and the election of Lincoln that led southerners to argue that their rights as states were being violated by the federal government and so they had the right to secede. Secessionists believed that the federal government under the leadership of President Lincoln would not allow slavery to expand into the territories. The balance of power in the Senate would then be upset and the Congress would eventually vote to abolish slavery. To protect slavery, South Carolina secessionists led other southern states in seceding from the Union and forming the Confederate States of America. The Confederacy began to occupy the federal forts that were located in the South.

It is not essential for the students to know: Students do not need to understand all of the incidents over states’ rights that preceded secession in 18 0. They do not need to know that the states’ rights argument was made by opposition to the Alien and Sedition Acts in the Virginia and Kentucky resolutions. It continued with Federalists’ arguments made at the Hartford Convention over embargo and the War of 1812 and with Calhoun’s South Carolina Exposition and Protest. The liberty laws passed by northern states to counter the fugitive slave law were also based on a states’ rights argument. Although students need to know about “bleeding Kansas,” they do not need to know about the conflicting constitutions in Kansas, the Lincoln Douglas debates, or the Freeport Doctrine. They do not need to know that the Republicans included members of the abolitionist Liberty Party, the Free Soil Party, some anti-Nebraska Democrats and Whigs, or that the Democratic Party split in 1860 as a result of Douglas’s Freeport Doctrine. Students do not need to know the names of the four candidates for president in 1860. Although helpful to understanding the arguments over states rights’ and federal ower, students do not need to remember the arguments made in the various articles of secession or the counter arguments made by Lincoln in his First Inaugural Address.

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They do not need to know that South Carolina was the first state to secede or the order in which other southern states followed.

• Analyze the relative importance of multiple causes on outcomes.

• Create a thesis supported by research to convince an audience of its validity.

• Analyze and evaluate evidence, arguments, claims and beliefs.

Assessment Guidelines: Appropriate classroom assessments could require students to be able to:

Checking

Critiquing

or any verb from the Analyze, Apply, Understand or Remember cognitive process dimensions.

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Standard USHC-3: The student will demonstrate an understanding of how regional and ideological differences led to the Civil War and an understanding of the impact of the Civil War and Reconstruction on democracy in America.

Enduring Understanding Democracy is based on the balance between majority rule and the protection of minority rights. To understand the impact of conflicting interest on the rights of minority groups, the student will...

USHC-3.2 Summarize the course of the Civil War and its impact on democracy, including the major turning points; the impact of the Emancipation Proclamation; the unequal treatment afforded to African American military units; the geographic, economic, and political factors in the defeat of the Confederacy; and the ultimate defeat of the idea of secession.

Taxonomy Level: Understand/ Conceptual Knowledge – 2/B

Previous/future knowledge: Students should have prior knowledge of the course of the Civil War (3-4.4) and the strategies used by the North and the South (8-4.5) in South Carolina. They should know about significant turning points and the role of African Americans in the war (4-6.4).

It is essential for the students to know: Secession challenged democracy. A minority of Americans determined to leave the Union because they were dissatisfied with the outcome of the 1860 election. Southerners feared that the new administration would force them to grant freedom to their slaves. President Lincoln pledged to preserve the Union and democracy. Confederates fired on federal troops stationed at Fort Sumter in Charleston harbor and the Civil War began.

The course and outcome of the Civil War depended upon the economic resources of the North and the South, the geographic factors that influenced strategy and the military and political leadership that influenced public support. The Union had far greater economic resources including industrial capacity, miles of railroad tracks, manpower and a navy. The South depended on the power of King Cotton and their trading relationship with Great Britain to provide the manufactured goods and ships that they lacked. However the Union’s strategy to blockade southern ports disrupted this trade throughout the war. The North’s offensive strategy was based on geography and included splitting the South at the Mississippi River and taking the capital at Richmond [Anaconda Plan]. The South’s strategy was mainly to seek support from Great Britain and defend their region until such aid was obtained or the North tired of the war effort. Confederate forces invaded the North twice in an effort to gain foreign support and hasten the end of the war but were repulsed at Antietam and defeated at Gettysburg. Initially the South enjoyed advantages in both military leadership and geography. They were able to effectively move their men and materiel via railroads between battle fronts in the east and the west under the effective leadership of Robert E. Lee. Southerners were also more familiar with their home terrain.