Name _____________________________________ Date_____________________________ Causes of the Civil War Questions
Cause #1: Differences Between the North and the South
1) The South’s economy relied on its _____________.
2) The invention of the __________ ________ made cotton the crop of choice.
3) The North had an economy that relied on ____________.
4) The northern industries were turning the cotton grown in the south into finished goods
in _____________.
Cause #2: The Argument of State Rights Versus Federal Rights
5) Many felt that the ______________ ignored the rights of states to act
independently.
6) What was it called when Southern states wanted to leave the Union?
______________
Cause #3: The Question of Whether New States Entering the Union Would Be Slave
States or Free States
7) Who was know as “the Great Compromiser”? __________________
8) Under the Missouri Compromise which state would enter the Union as a
slave state? __________________
9) And which state would enter as a free state? ____________
10) Which side of the imaginary line drawn through the rest of the lands gained in the
Louisiana Purchase would allow slavery? _____________________
11) True or False: The Compromise of 1850 made California free and allowed the people
in Utah and New Mexico to decide if their territory would or would not allow slavery.
Name _____________________________________ Date_____________________________ Cause #4: The Growth of the Abolition Movement
12) What were people who opposed slavery called? ________________
13) True or False: The Fugitive Slave Act increased Underground
Railroad activity as fleeing slaves made their way to Canada.
14) What was the title of the book written in 1852 by Harriet Beecher
Stowe that showed the evils of slavery? _______________________________
15) What was the fighting in Kansas over whether to be a free state or a slave state
called? _______________________
16) True or False: The Dred Scott Decision in 1857 said that Dred Scott was free
because he lived on free land for so long.
17) Who was the radical abolitionist who led an uprising on October 16, 1859 at Harper's
Ferry, Virginia? ____________________
18) Was the uprising successful? __________
Cause #5: Abraham Lincoln was Elected as President
19) When Lincoln was elected in 1860, which state decided to secede
from the Union? _________________
20) Name three other states that seceded from the Union before
Lincoln was inaugurated.
________________ _______________ ________________
21) True or False: When Lincoln was inaugurated on March 4th of 1861, he said he had
plans to end slavery in states where slavery already existed.
22) On April 12th of 1861, what fort did the South fire on, marking the start of the Civil
War? _____________________________