🗽 US History · Expansion and Division

Causes of the Civil War practice questions

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Answer key with explanations

1. Historians identify which of these as the central cause of the Civil War?

   Answer: The conflict over slavery and its spread into the western territories. The textbook consensus is that slavery, and above all the question of whether it would spread into the western territories, was the central cause. The seceding states' own declarations support this. A tariff was an “other factor.” The national bank fight belonged to an earlier period, and immigration was not a cause of secession.

2. The Missouri Compromise of 1820 kept the number of free and slave states equal by linking the admission of which two states?

   Answer: Maine as a free state and Missouri as a slave state. Maine entered as a free state and Missouri as a slave state, so the balance stayed equal. The second choice reverses them. California and Texas were not linked in the Missouri Compromise, and Kansas and Nebraska were not yet states in 1820.

3. Which statement best describes the effect of the novel Uncle Tom's Cabin on the debate over slavery?

   Answer: It was widely read, moved many Northern readers against slavery, and was rejected by many white Southerners as unfair.. Harriet Beecher Stowe's novel of 1852 was one of the most widely read books of its time. It moved many Northerners against slavery, and many white Southerners rejected it. It was a novel, not a law or a court opinion. The Supreme Court opinion that denied citizenship was the Dred Scott decision, and the claim that few people read the book is false.

4. Why did the Kansas–Nebraska Act of 1854 anger many Northerners?

   Answer: It let settlers vote on slavery in the new territories, which repealed the Missouri Compromise ban there.. The act created Kansas and Nebraska and used popular sovereignty, so settlers would vote on slavery. Because the land lay north of the 36°30′ line, this repealed the Missouri Compromise ban. It did not require a ban. The Fugitive Slave Act was a separate law, and the citizenship ruling came from the Dred Scott decision.

5. In Dred Scott v. Sandford, the Supreme Court ruled that...

   Answer: Black Americans, enslaved or free, could not be citizens, and Congress could not ban slavery in the territories.. Chief Justice Taney's opinion held that Black Americans could not be citizens and that Congress had no power to ban slavery in the territories. The first choice is the opposite of the Court's ruling, because the Court rejected Scott's claim to freedom. The Court did not require a ban in the territories, and it did not rule on the right to secede.

6. Which statement about “states' rights” in the secession crisis is most accurate?

   Answer: It was an argument made at the time, and in the sources of the time it was closely tied to the right to hold enslaved people.. People really did make the states' rights argument, but in the sources of the time it was tied closely to protecting slaveholders' rights. The second choice contradicts those sources. The third is false, because Southern leaders used the argument too, including to defend secession. (Some Northern states did use their own laws to resist the Fugitive Slave Act, so the argument was not used the same way every time.) The fourth is false, because several declarations name the protection of slavery as a reason.

7. Which statement describes the Republican Party's position on slavery in 1860?

   Answer: It opposed the expansion of slavery into the territories but did not call for ending slavery where it already existed.. The Republican platform opposed the spread of slavery into the territories, and Lincoln said he would not interfere with slavery where it already existed. Immediate nationwide abolition was the abolitionists' demand. Letting settlers vote was the idea of popular sovereignty, supported by Stephen Douglas. Protecting slavery in all the territories was the Southern Democratic position.

8. Which state was the first to secede after Abraham Lincoln was elected?

   Answer: South Carolina. South Carolina seceded on December 20, 1860. Georgia and Texas followed in January and February 1861. Virginia left only after the attack on Fort Sumter and Lincoln's call for troops.

9. Which of these facts is evidence against the claim that the Civil War was mainly about tariffs?

   Answer: Several seceding states' own declarations of causes named the protection of slavery as their reason for leaving.. The seceding states' own words are direct evidence of their stated reasons, and they name slavery. The facts about Northern manufacturers and Southern cotton sales describe tariff interests but do not show that tariffs caused secession. The ballot fact is about sectional politics, not tariffs.

10. Which of these is best described as a long-term cause of the Civil War rather than a triggering event?

    Answer: The growing disagreement over whether slavery would spread into the western territories. The disagreement over slavery's spread built up for decades, so it is a long-term cause. Lincoln's election set off secession, South Carolina's decision was the first secession, and the attack on Fort Sumter set off the fighting. All three are triggering events.