Unit 2- Reading Guide 1
Name_________________________
Vocab: Be prepared to define each of the following terms
Wilmot Proviso
“Bleeding Kansas”
Secession
Charles Sumner
Gold Rush
Dred Scott v. Sanford
Compromise of 1850
Stephen Douglas
Popular sovereignty
Abraham Lincoln
Liberty Party
John Brown
Free-Soil Party
Crittenden Amendments
Republican Party
the Confederacy
Uncle Tom’s Cabin
Jefferson Davis
Kansas-Nebraska Act
Guided Reading Questions: Provide comprehensive answers, in complete
sentences, to each of the following questions.
1. How did the issue of slavery come up during the Mexican War? Describe the
proposed bill. Who defeated this bill? What threats were made over the
issue?
2. How is crisis averted by the Compromise of 1850? In reality, what happened
to the amount of territory opened to slavery?
3. If you were a pro-slavery Southerner, how would you feel about the
emergence of new political parties such as the Liberty Party, Free-Soil Party,
and the Republican Party?
4. How did Southerners react to Stowe’s Uncle Tom’s Cabin? How did it change
the issue of slavery?
5. What happened to the amount of territory opened to slavery by the KansasNebraska Act? How/where did this Act incite violence? (hint: not just in
Kansas anymore, Toto!)
6. Why did Dred Scott lose his case for freedom? Was the Supreme Court’s
decision Constitutional? prove it!
7. What was the larger ramification of the Dred Scott decision regarding the
issue of slavery in the territories?
8. Describe the positions of Stephen Douglas and Abraham Lincoln in their
debates. What effects would their debates have on the Democratic and
Republican parties?
9. How did both the North and South react to John Brown’s attempt to start a
slave revolt at Harper’s Ferry, VA?
10. What happened to the Democrat Party during the 1860 election? How does
Lincoln’s election show that the country was torn apart?
11. What was the last legislative proposal prior to South Carolina’s secession?
What did it propose? Who defeated it?
12. Why did the South secede after Lincoln’s election? What country is formed
and who was chosen as their president?