Question 1

Instructions: Identify the following. Be as specific as possible, and include names, dates, and relevant facts as appropriate. Be sure to explain the significance of the person or term. 
Fugitive Slave Act

Accepted Answer

The Fugitive Slave Act was a law passed by the United States Congress in 1850 as part of the Compromise of 1850. This law required that all escaped slaves, upon capture, be returned to their masters and that officials and citizens of free states had to cooperate in the capture and return of runaway slaves. The act also denied the right to a jury trial for captured fugitive slaves and imposed heavy penalties on anyone who aided a fugitive slave.

The Fugitive Slave Act was significant because it intensified the tensions between the North and South over the issue of slavery. Many Northerners opposed the law and saw it as a violation of their states' rights and moral principles. It also led to increased resistance to the enforcement of the law, including the formation of vigilance committees and the Underground Railroad to help escaped slaves reach freedom in Canada.

The Fugitive Slave Act ultimately contributed to the growing divide between the North and South and played a role in the lead-up to the Civil War. It also highlighted the moral and legal conflicts surrounding the institution of slavery in the United States.

Question 2

Instructions: Identify the following. Be as specific as possible, and include names, dates, and relevant facts as appropriate. Be sure to explain the significance of the person or term. 
Pottawatomie massacre

Accepted Answer

The Pottawatomie Massacre was a violent reaction to the pro-slavery forces in Kansas and occurred on the night of May 24 and the morning of May 25, 1856. This event is significant in American history as it represents a flashpoint in the escalating tensions that would eventually lead to the American Civil War.

The massacre was carried out by the radical abolitionist John Brown and a small group of followers, including four of his sons. They were responding to the sacking of Lawrence, Kansas, by pro-slavery forces, which occurred just a few days earlier on May 21, 1856. Lawrence was a stronghold of anti-slavery settlers, and its attack by pro-slavery "Border Ruffians" was seen as an act of war by abolitionists.

In retaliation, Brown and his men went to Pottawatomie Creek in Franklin County, Kansas, and dragged five men and boys, presumed to be pro-slavery settlers, from their homes and brutally murdered them with broadswords. The victims were James Doyle and his sons, Drury and William, Allen Wilkinson, and William Sherman. None of the victims were known to have committed any violence themselves; they were targeted based on their pro-slavery sentiments and associations.

The Pottawatomie Massacre shocked the nation and further polarized the already tense situation in Kansas, which was known as "Bleeding Kansas" due to the violence there between pro-slavery and anti-slavery settlers. The massacre was part of a larger pattern of armed conflict over the issue of slavery in the territory, which was being decided by popular sovereignty, meaning that the settlers of Kansas would vote to determine whether the territory would allow slavery.

John Brown's actions at Pottawatomie were controversial. Some abolitionists saw him as a hero standing up against the violent oppression of slavery, while others condemned the killings as morally wrong and counterproductive to the cause. Pro-slavery advocates used the massacre to paint all abolitionists as extremists and justify further violence against them.

The Pottawatomie Massacre is significant as it exemplifies the extreme measures some individuals were willing to take in the fight over slavery in the United States. It also foreshadowed the violence and bloodshed that would occur on a national scale during the Civil War, which began just five years later in 1861. John Brown would go on to lead other anti-slavery actions, most notably the raid on the federal armory at Harpers Ferry in 1859, for which he was captured, tried, and hanged. Brown's actions made him a martyr to the abolitionist cause and a symbol of the fight against slavery.

Question 3

Instructions: Identify the following. Be as specific as possible, and include names, dates, and relevant facts as appropriate. Be sure to explain the significance of the person or term. 
Stephen A. Douglas

Accepted Answer

Stephen A. Douglas was a prominent American politician and a U.S. Senator from Illinois during the mid-19th century. Born on April 23, 1813, in Brandon, Vermont, Douglas became one of the most influential figures in the Democratic Party and a key player in the politics leading up to the American Civil War.

Douglas is perhaps best known for his role in the passage of the Kansas-Nebraska Act in 1854. This act effectively repealed the Missouri Compromise by allowing settlers in the territories of Kansas and Nebraska to decide for themselves whether to allow slavery, a concept known as "popular sovereignty." The Kansas-Nebraska Act led to violent conflict in Kansas, known as "Bleeding Kansas," as pro-slavery and anti-slavery settlers rushed into the territory to influence the decision.

Douglas's support for popular sovereignty and the Kansas-Nebraska Act alienated him from the more radical, pro-slavery elements of the Democratic Party, as well as from the emerging Republican Party, which opposed the expansion of slavery. Despite this, he remained a powerful figure in national politics.

In 1858, Douglas engaged in a series of seven debates with Abraham Lincoln, who was then the Republican candidate for Douglas's Senate seat. These debates, known as the Lincoln-Douglas Debates, were centered on the issue of slavery and its expansion into the new territories. Although Douglas won re-election to the Senate, the debates gave Lincoln a national profile that eventually helped him secure the Republican nomination for president in 1860.

Douglas ran for president as the Northern Democratic candidate in the 1860 election, which was one of the most consequential elections in American history. The Democratic Party had split into Northern and Southern factions, with John C. Breckinridge representing the Southern Democrats. The split in the Democratic vote, along with the presence of a fourth candidate, John Bell of the Constitutional Union Party, helped Lincoln win the presidency.

Despite losing the election, Douglas played a significant role during the secession crisis that followed Lincoln's election. He supported the Union and worked to rally Northern Democrats to the cause of preserving the United States. Douglas's efforts to maintain the Union were cut short by his untimely death on June 3, 1861, just a few months after the Civil War began.

Stephen A. Douglas's legacy is complex. He was a skilled orator and politician who advocated for popular sovereignty, which he believed would allow for democratic resolution to the contentious issue of slavery. However, his policies inadvertently heightened sectional tensions and contributed to the outbreak of the Civil War. Despite this, his later support for the Union demonstrated his commitment to the nation's unity, even in the face of its greatest crisis.

Question 4

Instructions: Identify the following. Be as specific as possible, and include names, dates, and relevant facts as appropriate. Be sure to explain the significance of the person or term. 
Personal-liberty laws

Accepted Answer