AP US History
Essential Questions
AP US History
Essential Questions
Essential Questions:
1. Explain the widespread popularity of the concept of popular sovereignty as a way
to resolve the issue of slavery in the territories. Then explain why it ultimately
failed.
2. Explain the relationship between the Ostend Manifesto and the slavery
controversy in the United States.
3. In what way did the Compromise of 1850 contribute to the Union victory in the
Civil War?
4. Explain why the Kansas-Nebraska Act might be characterized as a serious
mistake for southern interests.
5. Compare and contrast the views of Clay, Webster, and Calhoun in the
congressional debate that produced the Compromise of 1850.
6. Analyze how western expansion contributed to growing sectional tensions
between the North and the South. Confine your answer to the period from 18001850.
7. Analyze the ways in which controversy over the extension of slavery into western
territories contributed to the coming of the Civil War. Confine your answer to the
period 1845-1861.
8. Assess the moral arguments and political actions of those opposed to the spread of
slavery in the context of TWO of the following : Missouri Compromise, Mexican
War, Compromise of 1850, Kansas-Nebraska Act.
9. In the early 19th century, Americans sought to resolve their political disputes
through compromise, yet by 1860 this no longer seemed possible. Analyze the
reasons for this change. Use the documents and your knowledge of the period
1820-1860 in constructing your response.
10. Analyze the effectiveness of political compromise in reducing sectional tensions
in the period 1820-1861.
11.
AP US History
Essential Questions
ID Terms:
1. Fraknlin Pierce
2. Zachary Taylor
3. Stephen Douglas
4. Winfield Scott
5. John C. Calhoun
6. Martin Van Buren
7. Harriet Tubman
8. William H. Seward
9. Henry Clay
10. popular sovereignty
11. Filibustering
12. Free Soil Party
13. Fugitive Slave Law
14. “conscience” Whigs
15. Underground Railroad
16. Compromise of 1850
17. Ostend Manifesto
18. Kansas-Nebraska Act
19. John Brown
20. James Buchanan
21. Charles Sumner
22. Dred Scott
23. Roger Taney
24. John Breckenridge
25. John Bell
26. Jeff Davis
27. Uncle Tom’s Cabin
28. Lecompton Constitution
29. “Bleeding Kansas”
30. Lincoln-Douglas Debates
31. Crittenden Compromise