Question 1

1)	Describe slavery on the plantation in the early American South.

Accepted Answer

The term slave came from the Slavic people who were white slaves preferred by the royal class of Europe before the age of sale. After the interior of Africa was penetrated during the age of sale African slavery became popular. Slave traders would set up maroon colonies on the coast of Africa where ships would gather them and set sale for the colonies along the middle passage. Slave families work broken up and sold to the highest bidders to work on Southern Plantations growing rice, tobacco, cotton, indigo, hemp, and other crops. The conditions of slavery were not good. Slaves worked long hours from sun up to sun down in either the harsh gang system where slaves worked continuously all day long doing arduous task. The task system of work was less harsh where slaves could work a certain task and then once completed could do something for themselves like work on their own garden or earn money working independently for another plantation owner. Slavery in America was different in that it was hereditary, and was passed down from generation to generation. Slaves were considered property and worked very hard by the overseer and plantation owner. Slaves could not read or write. Education was legally forbidden to slaves.

Question 2

2)	Explain how slavery caused division in the North and South socially.

Accepted Answer

The cultural (social) differences between the North and South also caused conflict and added to sectional differences.  In the North, society was much more urban (cities) and industrial while the majority of people were employed. Northerners tended to be less religious but more educated and the section was the power base of several political groups, including the Whigs, Republicans, and the Northern part of the Democratic Party. In the South, most people made a living through agriculture (farming) and lived further apart than people in the congested cities of the North. Religion was more important in the daily life of southerners but the average person was less educated and nearly all southerners were Democrats. These cultural differences made both the North and South think it was better than the other and kept the sections from trying to understand each other.

Question 3

3)	Explain how slavery caused division in the North and South economically.

Accepted Answer

The Northern economy was centered on manufacturing and industry (factories). They called for a high tariff (tax on imported goods) to protect that industry from foreign competition. The North was dependent on other parts of the country for most of its agricultural needs. The northern part of the country also had most of the country’s factories, roads, canals, and railroads. In the South, agriculture and large plantations were the basis of the economy centered on “king cotton.” The South opposed tariffs because they believed they would scare off foreign buyers of their goods and cost them more to live the lives they were used to because they had to import many of their goods. The people in the South were more self-sufficient than the North, but still needed some goods produced the northern industries.  The South also wanted to develop more infrastructure (roads, cities, railroads, etc.), but felt like they were neglected by the government and other sections when it came to development. Economics only furthered the issues between the North and South.

Question 4

Explain how slavery caused division in the North and South Politically.

Accepted Answer

The North tended to have a “looser” interpretation of the Constitution and wanted a strong national government. They believed that the national government had absolute power and more authority over the country’s issues. Some Northern politicians, like Abraham Lincoln, believed that the United States was one nation and not a collection of independent states. They said the nation could not be separated or divided. The South, on the other hand, supported state’s rights (the idea that the individual states should have more power than the federal government). They read the Constitution more “strictly” than the northerners and also believed that state governments could nullify (or do away with) federal laws they did not agree with. Most Southerners also believed that because the states had freely created and joined the union (country) they could freely leave it as well. Constitutional (Political) issues caused the most conflict between the North and South leading up to the Civil War.

Question 5

5)	Explain slavery’s effects on western expansion leading up to the Civil War.

Accepted Answer

Slavery created issues that divided the nation leading up to the Civil War, createing social, economic, and political tensions within the United States. Only temporary fixes through compromises and laws, such as the Missouri Compromise, the Compromise of 1850, and the Kansas-Nebraska Act kept the peace. By 1860, however, the election of Abraham Lincoln made the South feel that no compromises could cure the wounds of so many years of disagreement. Fort Sumter, South Carolina provided the stage for the first sign of open aggression between the Union and the newly formed Confederate States of America.

Related quizzes

Related quizzes