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.
