Midterm 2013 Study Guide; Sectionalism and Civil War
Instructor, grader, and would-be arbitrary tyrant: Bradley J. Birzer the Pitt Elder
N.B. Please feel free to study in pairs or groups. Of course, you will have to take the exam individually.
Section 1: Essay. “Explain the causes of the Civil War.”
To cover the topic fully, you should include the issues discussed over the past six weeks: slavery, nationalism, republican thought, economics, religion, demographics, the constitution and politics, etc. Please remember that you are making an argument and must support it with appropriate evidence—from lectures as well as from the assigned readings in the course.
Worth sixty percent of your midterm grade.
Section 2: I.D.s. I will give you four terms, and you will need to define four (4) of them. To answer correctly, you must address the how, what, who, where, when, and why of each.
Possible I.D.s:
“Bleeding Kansas”
“Manifest Destiny”
“popular sovereignty”
1850 Fugitive Slave Law
American Party
Border Ruffians
Compromise of 1850
Conscience Whigs
Constitutional Union Party
Crackers
Daniel Webster
Force Bill
Free Soil Party
Henry Clay
James Buchanan
Jayhawkers
Jefferson Davis
John Brown
Kansas-Nebraska Act
Knights of the Golden Circle
Lecompton Swindle
Lincoln-Douglas Debates
Missouri Compromise of 1820
Platte County Self-Defense Association
Prigg v. Pennsylvania
Robert Anderson
Secret Six
Stephen Douglas
Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo
William Walker
William H. Seward
Wilmot Proviso
