Crash Course U.S. History the Election of 1860 & the Road to Disunion

John Green teaches us about the election of 1860.

As you may remember from last week, things were not great at this time in US history. The tensions between the North and South were rising, ultimately due to the single issue of slavery. (Some in) The North wanted to abolish slavery, and the South wanted to continue on with it. It seemed like a war was inevitable, and it turns out that it was.

But first the nation had to get through this election. You'll learn how the bloodshed in Kansas, and the truly awful Kansas-Nebraska Act led directly to the decrease in popularity of Stephen Douglas, the splitting of the Democratic Party, and the unlikely victory of a relatively inexperienced politician from Illinois, Abraham Lincoln. Lincoln's election would lead directly to the secession of several southern states, and thus to the Civil War. Mr. Green will teach you about all this, plus Dred Scott, Roger Taney, and John Brown.

  1. Mr. Green makes the point that though there are many different reasons why the Civil War happened, but all roads lead to what causation?
  1. What was the most controversial part of the Compromise of 1850?
  1. Because the new Fugitive Slave Law was so messed up it led many freed men and women to move where?
  1. Who was a huge backer of the Railroad (even though he himself was a tiny man)?
  1. In order to get his plan for a transcontinental railroad Douglas would push for what two states to become more ‘state-like’ with an act in Congress?
  1. In what state was there so much violence that some believe that Civil War started there in 1857?
  1. The fighting over the status of states as either free or slave through popular sovereignty led to the creation of what political party?
  1. Who was an anti-slavery zealot that murdered an entire family and got away with it?
  2. Kansas joined the union in 1861 as what kind of state?
  1. In what state was Dred Scott taken to live by his master that prompted him to sue for his freedom since slavery was illegal there?
  1. The Dred Scott decision convinced more people, especially Republicans that there really were no states that could be called what?
  1. What ‘historian term’ does Green use to describe the Democratic Party?
  1. What percentage of the popular vote did Lincoln get?
  1. By the time Lincoln actually took office, how many states had seceded from the Union?
  1. Fort Sumter was fired upon by which forces?
  1. What year did the first African slaves arrive in Virginia?