Question 1

What 1820 agreement admitted Missouri as a slave state and Maine as a free state, while prohibiting slavery north of the 36°30' line?

Accepted Answer

The Missouri Compromise. It temporarily resolved the sectional crisis over slavery's expansion but was later repealed by the Kansas-Nebraska Act of 1854.

Question 2

What did the Kansas-Nebraska Act of 1854 establish as the mechanism for deciding whether a territory would allow slavery?

Accepted Answer

Popular sovereignty — settlers in each territory would vote to decide the slavery question themselves, effectively repealing the Missouri Compromise.

Question 3

What was the significance of the 1857 Dred Scott v. Sandford Supreme Court decision in escalating sectional tensions?

Accepted Answer

Chief Justice Taney ruled that enslaved people were property, not citizens, and that Congress had no power to ban slavery in any territory, invalidating all slavery restrictions.

Question 4

How did John Brown's 1859 raid on Harpers Ferry intensify the sectional crisis?

Accepted Answer

Brown attempted to seize the federal arsenal to arm an enslaved people's revolt. His execution made him a martyr to Northern abolitionists while deepening Southern fears of Northern aggression.

Question 5

Which Southern state was the first to secede from the Union, and when did it do so?

Accepted Answer

South Carolina seceded on December 20, 1860, shortly after Abraham Lincoln's election as president, citing threats to slavery and states' rights.

Civil War & Reconstruction

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