UNIT 5

Unit 5: 1844-1877 – The American Pageant, chapters 17-22; Don’t Know Much About History pages 127-165

Content: As the nation expanded and its population grew, regional tensions, especially over slavery, led to a civil war – the course and aftermath of which transformed American society.  Tensions over slavery; reform movements; imperialism; Mexican War; Civil War; and Reconstruction.

Key Concepts:

5.1 The United States became more connected with the world as it pursued an expansionist foreign policy in the Western Hemisphere and emerged as the destination for many migrants from other countries.

5.2 Intensified by expansion and deepening regional divisions, debates over slavery and other economic, cultural and political issues led the nation into civil war.

5.3 The Union victory in the Civil War and the contested Reconstruction of the South settled the issues of slavery and secession, but left unresolved many questions about federal government power and citizenship rights.

Activities:

History Log – notes and short answers to reading assignments.

Primary Source Analysis: Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass, Accounts about poor Whites, Fugitive Slave Law, Dred Scott v. Sanford, The Impending Crisis in the South, the Lincoln –Douglas debates, Lincoln’s 2^nd Inaugural Address, Emancipation Proclamation, Mississippi Black Codes, map delineating southern session, two paintings of Manifest Destiny, Civil War photos.

Viewpoints: John Brown – Terrorist or Hero?

 

Viewpoints: Who Freed the Slaves – Students will present their viewpoint on who freed the slaves from one of the following groups: Congress, Lincoln, Military, or African-Americans.  In addition students will explain why the other three groups were not as effective.

Students read the sources in a document-based question on the Mexican-American War and engage in a classroom debate on President’s Polk’s motives for entering the war.

Students will read “Popular Sovereignty Should Settle the Slavery Question” by Stephen A. Douglas; “Slavery Should Not Be Allowed to Spread” by Abraham Lincoln from Opposing Viewpoints.  Students will identify major arguments of each man, and then debate whose argument was most persuasive.  Their analysis should address at least two of the following features from each of the documents: audience, purpose, point of view, format, argument, limitations, and content germane to the evidence considered.

Six Degrees of Separation: From 1776 to the Compromise of 1877.

Chronological Reason: Students look at the evolution of public policies related to slavery and racial inequality to 1877. 

UNIT Test – multiple-choice questions, short answer questions, DBQ and Long Essay (on public policies related to slavery).

During this unit students will discuss possible answers to the following essential questions:

Identity: How did migration to the United States change popular ideas of American Identity and citizenship as well as regional and racial identities?  How did the conflicts that led to the Civil War change popular ideas about national, regional, and racial identities?  How did the conflicts that led to the Civil War change popular ideas about national, regional, and racial identities throughout this period?

Work, Exchange, and Technology: How did the maturing of northern manufacturing and the adherence of the South to an agricultural economy change the nation economic system by 1877?

Peopling: How did the growth of mass migration to the United States and the railroad affect settlement patterns in cities and the West?

Politics and Power: Why did attempts at compromise before the war fail to prevent the conflict?  To what extent, and in what ways, did the Civil War and Reconstruction transform American political and social relationships?

America in the World: How was the American conflict over slavery part of larger global events?

Environment and Geography: How did the end of slavery and technological and military developments transform environment and settlement patterns in the South and West?

 

Ideas, Beliefs, and Cultures: How did the doctrine of Manifest Destiny debates over territorial expansionism and the Mexican War?  How did the Civil War struggle shape Americans’ beliefs about equality, democracy, and national destiny?