Ch. 14 questions

Which of the following was a result of the Lincoln-Douglas debates?

Douglas was elected senator of Illinois, Lincoln's national profile was raised, and citizens in both the North and South followed the debates closely

How did the "Bleeding Kansas" incident change the face of antislavery advocacy?

In response to proslavery forces' destruction of the antislavery press and Free State Hotel, radical abolitionists, including John Brown, murdered proslavery settlers at Pottawatomie. This was a turning point for Brown and many other radical abolitionists, who—unlike their largely pacifist counterparts, such as William Lloyd Garrison—came to believe that slavery must be extinguished by any means necessary, including open violence.

What are the main points of the Dred Scott decision?

The Supreme Court decided that Dred Scott had not earned freedom by virtue of having lived in a free state; thus, Scott and his family would remain enslaved. More broadly, the Court ruled that blacks could never be citizens of the United States and that Congress had no authority to stop or limit the spread of slavery into American territories.

Why did many in the North resist the Fugitive Slave Act?

This federal law appeared to northerners to be further proof of a "Slave Power" conspiracy and elite slaveholders' disproportionate influence over U.S. domestic policy. Northerners also resented being compelled to serve as de facto slave-catchers, as the law punished people not only for helping fugitive slaves, but also for failing to aid in efforts to return them. Finally, the law rankled many northerners for the hypocrisy that it exposed, given southerners' arguments in favor of states' rights and against the federal government's meddling in their affairs.

Border ruffians helped to _________?

elect a proslavery legislature in Kansas

Which of the following was a focus of the new Republican Party?

halting the spread of slavery

What was President Zachary Taylor's top priority as president?

preserving the Union

On what grounds did Dred Scott sue for freedom?

the fact that he had lived in free states

The Compromise of 1850 included:

the passage of the Fugitive Slave Act, the admission of California as a free state, and a ban on the slave trade in Washinton, D.C

Which of the following contributed to Lincoln's victory in the election of 1860?

the split between northern and southern democrats, Lincoln's improved national standing after his senatorial debates with Stephen Douglas, the Constitutional Union Party's further splintering the vote

Why did John Brown attack the armory at Harpers Ferry?

to seize weapons to distribute to slaves for a massive uprising

What were southerners' and northerners' views of John Brown?

Antislavery northerners tended to view Brown as a martyr for the antislavery cause; some saw in him a Christ-like figure who died for his beliefs. Southerners, for their part, considered Brown a terrorist. They felt threatened by northerners' deification of Brown and worried about the potential for other, similar armed insurrections.