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Causes of the Civil War Video Guide
Summary
America in the mid-nineteenth century was still a young nation, not yet a
hundred years old. In fact, some believed that it represented more an amalgam of
diverse communities with a common constitution than a real nation. Stark
differences separated the growing cities of the North from the rural farming
communities of the South; in the West, frontiers were still developing as
settlers moved into new and unexplored territories. Nowhere was the disparity of
life in the United States more apparent than in the South, where slavery was the
daily reality for more than a third of the Southern population.
The United States was arriving at a crossroads it had been approaching since
its birth. Voices rose and arguments exploded in debates over the fate of
slavery and states' rights. Congress drew up territories and admitted new
states, but failed to resolve the issue of slavery and its expansion into new
lands. The Supreme Court delivered an unsettling decision on the rights of black
people. Settlers exchanged fire in Kansas over slavery in that new state.
Northerners turned their faces in shame over the South's "peculiar
institution," and abolitionists like John Brown began to demonstrate the
ferocity of their determination. By 1860, all eyes were on the presidential
election. Slave-owners had defied the North to impose its values on their
long-established ways. Now President Lincoln and his new Republican Party were
forced to act.
Questions to Consider
1. Slavery
Which part of the country had slaves?
What kinds of people owned slaves?
Why did slaves not have legal rights? Were they Americans? Who were they?
Describe an average day in the life of a slave plantation worker.
What did the word "freedom" mean to slaves? How could a slave
obtain it?
How did the cotton gin change the economy of the South?
2. Confronting the South
What did the word "freedom" mean to slave-owners?
What kinds of people were abolitionists? How did they influence people in
the North and the South?
What did Frederick Douglass mean when he said "I stole this
body?" Who would have considered him a thief?
3. Half Slave and Half Free
What did the word "freedom" mean to Abraham Lincoln? What did it
mean to the Supreme Court?
What were some of the events that affected political conditions in the
country at this time?
Why did Dred Scott not have the same rights as a white man? What did this
mean for other blacks? Did it affect black and white women?
Characterize the differences between the North and the South. What made the
United States a single nation? What divided it?
In your opinion, could this nation have solved the issue of slavery
peacefully?
4. Harpers Ferry
What did the word "freedom" mean to John Brown?
What did John Brown have to do with the Civil War?
Agree or disagree: "John Brown did the right thing."
In your opinion, what was Brown's final message?
5. Secessionism
What did the word "freedom" mean to southerners?
Why was the 1860 election a referendum on the southern way of life?
Describe the southern way of life. Why did southerners dislike Lincoln?
Agree or disagree, and support your opinion: "Abolitionists started
the war;" "Secessionists started the war."
6. The Birth of the Confederacy
Explain why many people in the South believed that states had a right to
secede from the United States.
Do you think many southerners believed that their new nation could survive?
What was their new country like?
What kinds of advantages (social, economic, cultural, geographic, etc.) did
the North have over the South? What kinds of advantages did the South have
over the North?
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