Download Possible Essay Questions for Chapter 19

APUSH
Class Info
Chapter 19
Name ____________________________________
Date _______________________ Hour _________
Chapter 19: Renewing the Sectional Struggle (1848-1854)
Unit 3 – Testing the New Nation
Required Reading:
 Textbook: The American Pageant, Bailey, Kennedy, and Cohen
o Chapter 19 (pages 400-419)
o Due: __________________________
 Historical Scholarship:
o
 Primary Sources:
o Compromise of 1850
 Speeches of Webster, Calhoun & Clay
o Debate over the Kansas-Nebraska Bill
 Speeches by Stephen A. Douglas & Salmon P. Chase
Exam:
 Multiple Choice Exam will be given with Chapters 19, 20 & 21
 Exam Date: __________________________________
People to Know/Terms to Know from Chapter 19
 Optional Assignment – to be used as part of Curve Packet
Due: Day of Unit Exam, __________________________
Map
None
Reading Objectives:
 Required Homework Assignment
Due: ______________________________
Additional Assignments:
None
APUSH
Homework
Chapter 19
Name ____________________________________
Date _______________________ Hour _________
People to Know:
Identify and state the historical significance of the following:
Lewis Cass
Zachary Taylor
Martin Van Buren
Harriet Tubman
Henry Clay
Stephen A. Douglas
John C. Calhoun
Daniel Webster
William H. Seward
Millard Fillmore
Nicholas P. Trist
Franklin Pierce
Winfield Scott
Matthew C. Perry
James Gadsden
William Walker
APUSH
Homework
Chapter 19
Name ____________________________________
Date _______________________ Hour _________
Terms to Know:
Define and state the historical significance of the following:
popular sovereignty
Fugitive Slave Law
Underground Railroad
Clayton-Bulwer Treaty
Kansas-Nebraska Act
Filibustering
“conscience” Whigs
Compromise of 1850
Ostend Manifesto
Gadsen Purchase
Free Soil party
“personal liberty laws”
“fire eaters”
“higher law”
Treaty of Wanghia
APUSH
Homework
Chapter 19
Name ____________________________________
Date _______________________ Hour _________
Map:
Locate the following places by reference number on the map.
Nashville # _______
Gadsden Purchase # _______
Kansas Territory # _______
California # _______
Washington, D.C. # _______
Nebraska Territory # _______
APUSH
Homework
Chapter 19
Name ____________________________________
Date _______________________ Hour _________
Reading Objectives:
1. Why did the major political parties try to avoid discussion of the slavery issues?
2. What happened as a result of the Mexican American war in the US?

Politically

Geographically
3. What was the Wilmot Proviso? Why was it significant?
4. Why did the Wilmot Proviso not become law?
5. What modern day states make up the Mexican Cession?
6. Why did the Mexican Cession cause a debate over slavery?
7. What did the Free Soil party platform advocate?
8. According to the principle of “popular sovereignty,” the question of slavery in the territories
would be determined by?
9. Why did the American public like the idea popular sovereignty to settle slavery disputes?
10. What event that brought turmoil to the administration of Zachary Taylor?
11. What arguments did the Free Soil Party make against slavery?
12. What type of men went to California for the Gold Rush?
13. What problems were created from this?
APUSH
Homework
Chapter 19
Name ____________________________________
Date _______________________ Hour _________
14. How did Harriet Tubman gain fame?
15. By the 1850’s, how did most slaves gain their freedom?
16. Describe John C. Calhoun's plan to protect the South and slavery.
17. What was the main theme of Daniel Webster's famed Seventh of March speech in 1850?
18. Why did the abolitionists condemn this speech?
19. What did William H. Seward mean when he referred to “higher law?”
20. List ALL PARTS of the Compromise of 1850.
21. What were “personal liberty laws”?
22. How did demanding a strong fugitive slave laws hurt the south?
23. What caused the split in the Whig party in 1852?
24. Who opened Japan to the United States?
25. The scheme to acquire Cuba from Spain in the 1850's was known as…
26. What stopped the United States' scheme to gain control of Cuba?
27. Why did the south want control of Cuba?
28. What was the Treaty of Wanghia?
APUSH
Homework
Chapter 19
Name ____________________________________
Date _______________________ Hour _________
29. What reasons were given for building a transcontinental railroad?
30. Who proposed the Kansas- Nebraska territory should settle slavery through popular
sovereignty?

What did this law did this become known as?

What had to be repealed for this to become law? Explain why.
31. Why did the North oppose the Kansas-Nebraska plan?
32. Explain why the Kansas-Nebraska Act might be characterized as a serious mistake for
southern interests.
33. Explain the relationship between the Ostend Manifesto and the slavery controversy in the
United States.
34. In what ways did the Compromise of 1850 contribute to the Union victory in the Civil War?
35. Compare and contrast the views of Clay, Webster, and Calhoun in the congressional debate
that produced the Compromise of 1850.
36. Why might it be argued that the building of the first transcontinental railroad to link the East
and the West contributed to the wrenching apart of the North and South?
APUSH
Homework
Chapter 19
Name ____________________________________
Date _______________________ Hour _________
Possible Essay Questions for Chapter 19
1. Explain the widespread popularity of the concept of popular sovereignty as a way to resolve
the issue of slavery in the territories. Then explain why it ultimately failed.
2. The text’s authors observe that during the debate of 1850, John C. Calhoun, hoping to save
the Union, proposed “an utterly unworkable scheme of electing two presidents, one from the
North and one from the South, each wielding a veto.” Explain why such an arrangement
would have been “utterly unworkable.”
3. The authors argue that the North “got the better of the Compromise of 1850.” Do you agree?
Why or why not?
4. Do you think that by the end of 1854 the two sections had reached an impasse and that Civil
War was inevitable sooner or later? Why or why not?