Guide 1

Question 1

Background on American society in 1850

Answer 1

-during the 1850s America was a country of two political parties operating from a second party system with the democrats and whigs being the two main parties.
-the country was split by distinctively unequal roles to men and women - 25% of white women worked outside the home pre-marriage and fewer than 5% did so married
-rapid pop growth in 1840 the pop stood at 17million by 1860 it had reached 51 million

Question 2

Political system - Executive branch

Answer 2

President is head of executive branch and is selected every 4 years. Appoints a cabinet to help him govern

Question 3

Political system - legislature

Answer 3

Congress is the legislature in the USA made up of the house of resperesntives ( based on population and elected every two years) and the senate (two senators per state, 6 years, 1/3 go up for re-election every 2 years

Question 4

Political system - Judiciary

Answer 4

Supreme Court is in charge of the judiciary which is made up of 9 judges appointed by the president - life tenure

Question 5

Political system - state governments

Answer 5

Each state had its own governor, its own legislative body and Supreme Court. By 1850 the majority of the 30 states then in the union owed their existence to the creative act of the federal government

Question 6

Political system - states rights

Answer 6

The rights not specifically mentioned in the constitution as belonging to federal government automatically belonged to states

Question 7

When and what was the issue of the Missouri Compromise

Answer 7

1819 southerners proposed addition of Missouri as a slave state which would unbalance slave and free states which ultimately led to what was known as the Missouri compromise.

Question 8

Impact of Missouri Compromise

Answer 8

• Maine was admitted as free to balance states
• agreed end there should be no slavery in the Louisiana Purchase terrorise north of latitude 36-30

Question 9

Former President Thomas Jefferson on compromise

Answer 9

“This momentous question, like a fire bell in the night, awakened and filled me with terror”

Question 10

What is the second party system

Answer 10

-mid C19th there was two main political parties (democrats and whigs) . They operated at every level of politics. Local, state, national and preset dental elections
-parties not united

Question 11

Democrats

Answer 11

Historians mixed views
- Hugh Brogan “Whigs and democrats stood for significantly different economic programmes”
- supported states rights
-opposed federal intervention
-opposed creation of national bank
- believed most issues -not least slavery- should be left to individual states to decide
-strongest support in south - west
-lots of working class voters

Question 12

Whigs

Answer 12

-favoured strong federal intervention at every level in economic and social matters
- supported recreation of national banks and tariffs etc
-strongest in north and tended to be anti catholic

Question 13

Consensus breakdown

Answer 13

• By 1850 politics was becoming more sectionally based. American was becoming sectionally polarised

Question 14

Westward expansion timeline

Answer 14

-1775 consisted of 13 colonies
-late C18th settlers crossed Appalachian mountains into Tennesse, Kentucky and terottry south of Great Lakes
-1802-03 USA doubled size when purchased Louisiana Terroirty from France
-1850 USA extended from the Atlantic to pacific

Question 15

Issue of Westward Expansion

Answer 15

Raised question over wether new states would be slave holding it free

Question 16

North West Ordiance act

Answer 16

Passed by congress in 1787 which kept slavery out of the vast north west terroitory

Question 17

Cotton gin

Answer 17

Slavery cont in South, and introduction of Cotton Gin by Eli Whitney which quickly separated cotton from seed
-by 1860 south was producing nearly 5 million bales of cotton a year.

Question 18

Historian Farmer on Westward expansion

Answer 18

“As the continent was settled and new states applied to join the union, there was one crucial question in the minds of most Americans: would the new states be free or slave”

11 free:11 slave

Question 19

Urban population Stat

Answer 19

Urban population grew 3x faster than its rural counterpart beetween 1810 and 1860 rising from 6% to 20% of the total

Question 20

Charles Beard View On Sectionalism

Answer 20

Progressive historian Charles Beard argues that the civil war was a conflict beetween a ‘feudal’ south, still dependant on plantation agriculture and a capitalist, industrial north

Question 21

Similarities in Sections

Answer 21

-antebellum north was industrialising not indurtailisdd - in 1860 only 1/4th northerners lives in towns with a population of of more than 2,500 people
- South was not completely lacking industry ( The Tredegar Iron work in Richmond, Virginia ranked 4th among the nations producers of iron products.

Question 22

Differences in sections

Answer 22

-by 1860 1/6 of northern inhabitants were foreign born and one in six first generation Americans
-different economic interests - the tariff was a constant grieveance to most southerners
-social differences (1860 south had half the proportion of white children in education when compared to the north and the proportion of illiterate whites was 3x higher)
-slavery

Question 23

Differences in sections - compromise tariff

Answer 23

-passed 1833 after south Caroline threatened to seeded on the issue, went far to meet southern isasued

Question 24

Farmer on the different sections

Answer 24

“Not unnaturally, northern saw southern as backward and out of touch with 19th centenary ideas and ideals”

Question 25

The colonial period

Answer 25

The period beetween the establishment of the first colonies in the early C17th and the outbreak of the American wars of independence in the 1770s. During this time American colonies where rules by Great Britain

Question 26

Essays

Answer 26

Economic differences - economic systems, industrialisation, slavery and pop growth