Chapter 12 Flashcards
What was the impact of the passage of the Fugitive Slave Act in 1850?
Arousal of deeper hostilities between slave and free states
What group of people was likely to make the trip west?
Poor families looking for opportunity
A growing number of Northerners challenged the Fugitive Slave Act of 1850 on the basis of the
federal government’s right to enforce the law.
Why did the proslavery ruling in the Supreme Court’s Dred Scott decision backfire on the South?
It convinced Northerners of a proslavery conspiracy in the federal government.
The Lecompton Constitution declared that Kansas
would be a slave state.
In preparing their presidential ticket for the election of 1850, the Whigs hoped to
gain southern support while maintaining their northern base.
Lincoln and the Republicans rejected John Crittenden’s proposal to save the nation from southern secession because it
protected and encouraged the expansion of slavery.
Why was it challenging for election organizers to determine who had the right to vote on the Kansas referendum about slavery?
New people settled in the region daily hoping to influence the vote.
Why did everyone in the North believe that southern secession was going to be a temporary, fleeting development?
The states to secede were economically limited and financially vulnerable.
The Democratic Party was victorious in the 1852 presidential election, which
still left the party weak and somewhat fragile.
How did the gold rush influence racialized gender roles in the region?
Indian and Mexican women became valued members of Anglo families and communities.
According to the passage, what was the greatest danger faced by most Oregon Trail travelers, such as Elizabeth Smith Geer?
“It rains and snows. We start around the falls this morning with our wagons. We have five miles to go. I carry my babe and lead, or rather carry another, through snow, mud, and water almost to my knees. It is the worst road a team could possibly travel. I went ahead with my children and I was afraid to look behind me for fear of seeing the wagons overturn into the mud and water with everything in them. My children gave out with cold and fatigue and could not travel, and the boys had to unhitch the oxen and bring them and carry the children on to camp.”
The distance and the elements
Abolitionists were cautious and not jubilant when Lincoln was elected president in 1860 because Lincoln
still supported slavery.
The Ostend Manifesto, drafted by a group of U.S. foreign ministers, suggested that the United States
had the right to take by force any territory it desired.
Under what circumstances did the greatest number of African Americans go to Texas, Missouri, and Kansas?
As slaves of white planters
The introduction of the Kansas-Nebraska Act in 1854 was the result of political maneuvering by Senator Stephen Douglas of Illinois, who
hoped to get support for his railroad from Southerners by enabling slavery in the West.
The first white women who migrated west on the overland trails in the 1830s were
those accompanying their husbands.
What development pushed the issue of slavery to the center of national debate?
The expansion westward
All across the North, what groups lobbied against the Fugitive Slave Act of 1850?
Both whites and blacks of varying backgrounds
Why did so many Northerners ignore the Fugitive Slave Act of 1793?
Northerners resented the imposition of slaveholding values on their states.
What popular book combined accounts from former slaves as well as tales gathered by abolitionist lecturers and writers to promote the abolitionist cause?
Uncle Tom’s Cabin, by Harriet Beecher Stowe
Where did the journey on the Oregon Trail begin for most overland pioneers?
St. Louis, Missouri
What party emerged and stood against the expansion of slavery in the 1854 congressional elections?
Republican
What effect did the execution of John Brown have on southern whites?
Brown’s execution did little to assure southern whites that the institution of slavery was safe.
The small trading posts that opened up throughout the West in the mid-nineteenth century
inspired the settlement of communities nearby.
Why did presidential candidate for the American Party Millard Fillmore receive so few votes in the election of 1856?
The strength of nativist sentiment was waning.
In response to news of John Brown’s raid, capture, and execution, Quaker abolitionists
celebrated Brown for drawing attention to the cause of emancipation.
What impact did the massive migration west in the mid-nineteenth century have on the national identity of the United States?
The United States became an expanding empire.
Which southern state was the first to secede from the union in the wake of Abraham Lincoln’s election as president in 1860?
South Carolina
Why did opening up the Santa Fe Trail to commerce ultimately lead to the destruction of the Comanche empire?
One of the Comanche’s most crucial trading items, bison, was destroyed and greatly weakened the tribe economically.
What was Lincoln’s position on the rights of free blacks during his 1858 senatorial campaign?
Economic opportunity but not social or political equality
How did the gold rush affect the demographic makeup of California?
The Anglo-American population increased dramatically.
How did “conductors” of the Underground Railroad coordinate efforts with one another from region to region?
They really didn’t coordinate together.
Foreign officials pressured Congress to mediate the crisis triggered by the Fugitive Slave Act of 1850 on the basis
of the sheer violence of the institution of slavery.
According to the passages, how do William Neill and Millard Fillmore differ in evaluating the role of bystanders in the controversy over the Fugitive Slave Act?
“Resolved, That the Fugitive Slave Bill, recently adopted by the United States Congress, puts in imminent jeopardy the lives and liberties of ourselves and our children; it deprives us of trial by jury, when seized by the infernal slavecatcher, and by high penalties forbids the assistance of those who would otherwise obey their heart-promptings in our behalf; in making it obligatory upon marshals to become bloodhounds in pursuit of human prey; leaving us no alternative. . . .” –William C. Neill
“Now, therefore, to the end that the authority of the laws may be maintained and those concerned in violating them brought to immediate and condign punishment, I have issued this my proclamation, calling on all well-disposed citizens to rally to the support of the laws of their country, and requiring and commanding all officers, civil and military, and all other persons, civil or military, who shall be found within the vicinity of this outrage, to be aiding and assisting by all means in their power in quelling this and other such combinations and assisting the marshal and his deputies in recapturing the above-mentioned prisoner; and I do especially direct that prosecutions be commenced against all persons who shall have made themselves aiders or abettors in or to this flagitious offense.” –Millard Fillmore
Neill believes that bystanders would naturally take the side of the fugitives, and the law is intended to deter them.
Why does this banner for the Republican presidential ticket promise “Protection to American Industry?”
The Republican platform included a tariff to prevent foreign industrial competition.
Because of John Brown’s raid, the Republican Party platform of 1860
distanced itself from the radical wing of abolition.
As a result of the Fugitive Slave Act of 1850, slaveholders
intensified their hunt for fugitive slaves.
What forced many Indian nations to settle in the northern half of the Louisiana Territory?
They were displaced by white American settlers again.
When fugitive slave Anthony Burns was ordered removed from Boston and returned to his master in the South, why were hundreds of ordinary citizens agonized by the process and trying to stop it?
It made them realize how powerless they were over the federal government.
Which groups populated the West in large numbers before American pioneers and other European immigrants began migrating westward?
Indians and Mexicans
What political party attracted both ardent abolitionists and men whose only concern was keeping western territories open to free white men?
Republicans
Why did the Reverend Henry Ward Beecher of Brooklyn send “Beecher’s Bibles” to Kansas before the 1856 elections?
To promote self-defense of abolitionists
What enabled the Republican Party to attract followers rapidly?
Their proposal for commercial development and internal improvements
What conditions of westward expansion created a market for the jeans Levi Strauss invented in the 1850s?
The harsh weather and physical work environment
What happened when the Democratic Party could not select a candidate at its convention for the election of 1860?
The Democrats split into northern and southern factions.
What was a consequence of the United States’ new alliance with Japan under Pierce’s presidency?
Strained relations with China and Russia
