A Dividing Nation

Geography Challenge: The Union Challenged

Overview This activity introduces geographic information essential to the content. Students read and interpret maps to learn about the distribution of political power between the North and the South from the early 1800s until 1850. They annotate a map of the United States in 1850 and answer questions in their Interactive Student Notebooks,and then discuss critical thinking questions. Students comprehension of content and proficiency in map-reading and higher-order thinking skills will help you gauge their readiness for the content. The lesson includes a completed map, answers to questions, a scoring guide to inform your teaching, and suggestions for modifications to meet specific student needs. Essential Geographic Understandings 1. The order in which free states and slave states were added to the Union 2. How the nations growth and expansion affected the balance of power between free and slave states in both houses of Congress 3. Key human features: Indiana, Mississippi, Illinois, Alabama, Maine, Missouri, Arkansas, Michigan, Florida, Texas, Iowa, Wisconsin, Mexican Cession, California 4. Why the expansion of slavery was such an important issue to the South Procedures 1 Introduce the content. Tell students they will learn about the issues and events that divided North and South and led to the Civil War. They will also learn about the war itself, its aftermath, and the changes it brought to the South and the nation. 2 Create a KWL chart. Ask students to identify what they already know about the causes and consequences of the Civil War and what they want to learn. Use their responses to gauge how much additional background information they will need as you progress through the unit. Students will return to the KWL chart at and add the key information they have learned. 3 Have students read Setting the Stage in their Student Text. 4 Have students complete the Geography Challenge. Monitor students as they answer the questions and complete the map. You may want to have them work in pairs. Use the guide to check their answers. You may wish to project the map from the Interactive Student Notebook and have students annotate it as the class works through the map-reading questions. Make sure students have grasped Essential Geographic Understandings 1 to 3. 5 Discuss the Critical Thinking questions. Help students understand the geographic relationships described in Essential Geographic Understanding 4.

Overview and Objectives

Overview In a Visual Discovery activity, students analyze and bring to life images depicting the growing conflict between the North and the South to understand why the nation could not prevent civil war. Objectives

In the course of reading this chapter and participating in the classroom activity, students will Social Studies identify the regulations on slavery in the Northwest Ordinance. trace the effects of territorial expansion on the debate over slavery. analyze the impact of key events on the antislavery movement and on the Union. Language Arts participate in simulated historical debate. Social Studies Vocabulary Key Content Terms Union, Missouri Compromise, fugitive, Wilmot Proviso, Compromise of 1850, Kansas-Nebraska Act, Dred Scott decision, Lincoln-Douglas debates Academic Vocabulary confront, ensure, faction

Preview
Suggested time: 10 minutes

1 Have students complete the Preview in their Interactive Student Notebooks. Students will interpret a metaphor used by Abraham Lincoln to warn of the potential end of the Union. 2 Have students share their responses in pairs or with the class. 3 Explain the connection between the Preview and and the lesson's content. Tell students that Lincolns warning reveals the tensions that developed between the North and the South throughout the 1800s. The house symbolized the Union; the issue dividing the house was slavery. The nations attempts to keep from dividing ultimately failed. In this lesson, students will discover which events of the mid-1800s kept the Union together for a time and which pulled it apart.

Vocabulary Development
Suggested time: 30-40 minutes

1 Introduce the Key Content Terms. Have students locate the Key Content Terms for the lesson in their Interactive Student Notebooks. These are important terms that will help them understand the main ideas of the lesson. Ask volunteers to identify any familiar terms and how they might be used in a sentence. 2 Have students complete a Vocabulary Development handout. Give each student a copy of the Vocabulary Development handout of your choice from the Reading Toolkit. These handouts provide extra practice and support, depending on your students needs. Review the completed handout by asking volunteers to share one answer for each term.

Reading
1 Introduce the Essential Question and have students read Section 1. Have students identify the Essential Question: Which events of the mid-1800s kept the nation together and which events pulled it apart? Then have them read Section 1. Afterward, ask, What was the troubling question that the nation tried to avoid? Why could this question no longer be ignored? Why were new problems created when the nation attempted to compromise on this question?

2 Have students complete the Reading Notes for the lesson. Assign Sections 2 to 9 during the activity as indicated in the procedures for the Visual Discovery activity. Remind students to use the Key Content Terms where appropriate as they complete their Reading Notes.

Visual Discovery
Suggested time: 150-200 minutes

1 Introduce the activity. Explain that students will analyze maps and bring to life images to understand how tensions developed between the North and the South in the mid-1800s. Then they will decide which events of the mid-1800s kept the nation together and which events pulled it apart. 2 Have students read and complete the Reading Notes for Section 2. 3 Introduce the Missouri Compromise. Project The United States in 1819 and 1821 in the presentation. Reveal only the top map, The United States, 1819, and ask, What do you see on this map? How many free states are there? How many slave states? Why did the issue of Missouri statehood pull the nation apart? How would you have solved this problem? Why or why not? Reveal the bottom map and ask, How does this map differ from the first one? According to this map, what compromises might have been made to keep the nation together in 1820? How might Northerners have reacted to these compromises? How might Southerners have reacted? Do you think these compromises will keep the nation together or pull it apart? Why or why not? 4 Have students read and complete the Reading Notes for Sections 3 and 4. 5 Have students prepare to bring to life an image about California statehood. Project The Senate Debates California Statehood in the presentation and tell students that this image shows the Senate debating California statehood and slavery in 1850. Place students in groups of four and give a copy of Student Handout: Creating Act-It-Outs About a Dividing Nation to each group. Assign each group one of the characters in the first act-it-out: Northern Senator, Southern Senator, Abolitionist in the Gallery, Slave Owner in the Gallery. Then review the directions and give groups five to ten minutes to prepare. 6 Conduct the act-it-out. Call up four actors to stand in front of the projected image, taking on an appropriate characters posture and facial expression. Acting as the on-scene reporter, ask the characters some of the questions from the Student Handout. (Note: Consider conducting the actit-out a second time with new actors.) 7 Introduce the Compromise of 1850 by projecting The United States in 1821 and 1850 in the presentation. Reveal both maps and ask: How do the two maps differ? What changed between 1821 and 1850? According to the bottom map, what compromises might have been made to keep the nation together in 1850? How might Northerners have reacted to these compromises? How might Southerners have reacted?

 Do you think these compromises will keep the nation together or pull it apart? Why or why not? 8 Have students read and complete the Reading Notes for Sections 5 and 6. 9 Have students prepare to bring to life an image of Lawrence, Kansas. Project Bloodshed in Kansas in the presentation and tell students that this image depicts the raid on Lawrence, Kansas, in 1856. Place students in groups of four and assign each group one of the characters in the second act-it-out on the Student Handout: Proslavery Settler or Antislavery Settler. Then review the directions and give groups five to ten minutes to prepare. 10 Conduct the act-it-out. Call up two sets of actors (four students in all) to stand to the sides of the projected image, taking on appropriate postures and facial expressions. Acting as the onscene reporter, ask the characters some of the questions from the Student Handout. (Note: Consider conducting the act-it-out a second time with new actors.) 11 Introduce the Dred Scott decision by projecting The United States in 1850 and 1857 in the presentation. Reveal both maps and ask, How do the two maps differ? What changed between 1850 and 1857? According to the bottom map, what decision might have been made to settle the controversy over slavery? How might Northerners have reacted to this decision? How might Southerners have reacted? Do you think this decision will keep the nation together or pull it apart? Why or why not? 12 Have students read and complete the Reading Notes for Section 7 and 8. 13 Have students prepare to bring to life an image of the Lincoln-Douglas debates. Project The Lincoln- Douglas Debates in the presentation and tell students that this image depicts one of the seven Illinois senatorial debates between Abraham Lincoln and Stephen Douglas in 1858. Place students in groups of four. Assign each group one of the characters in the third act-it-out on the Student Handout: Abraham Lincoln or Stephen Douglas. Then review the directions and give groups approximately ten minutes to prepare. 14 Conduct the act-it-out. Tell the class that these debates gained national attention and drew large, enthusiastic crowds, with one debate having an audience of more than 10,000 people. Call up two actors to stand in front of the projected image, taking on an appropriate characters posture and facial expression, and have them perform the debate. Instruct half of the audience to cheer loudly after each statement made by Lincoln and the other half to cheer after each statement made by Douglas. Afterward, acting as the on-scene reporter, randomly ask audience members one of the questions from the Student Handout. 15 Introduce the election of 1860 by projecting The United States in 1860 in the presentation. Ask, What do you see on this map? What does this map tell you about the nation in 1860? How might Northerners have reacted to these election results? How might Southerners have reacted? Do you think these results will keep the nation together or pull it apart? Why? 16 Have students read and complete the Reading Notes for Section 9. 17 Have students reflect on what they have learned. Ask, Several compromises were made to try to keep the United States united. Why were they ultimately unsuccessful in holding the nation together?

Processing
Suggested time: 25 minutes

Have students complete the Processing activity, in which they will choose the event of the mid1800s that they believe pulled the nation the furthest apart and discuss it in a letter to the editor. Consider distributing letters to the editor from your local newspaper as examples.

Quicker Coverage
Eliminate One or More Act-It-Outs Consider performing only the act-it-outs that pertain to your state standards. Jigsaw the Topics for Section 6 Count students off from 1 to 5. Assign the 1s The Fugitive Slave Act, the 2s Uncle Toms Cabin, the 3s The Ostend Manifesto and the KansasNebraska Act, the 4s Bloodshed in Kansas, and the 5s Violence in Congress. Have groups complete the Reading Notes for their assigned section. Then call on volunteers to share their answers with the class as the other groups take notes.

Deeper Coverage
Analyze the Act-It-Out Images To help students preview Sections 4, 6, and 8, project The Senate Debates California Statehood in the presentation before students complete the Reading Notes for Section 4, Bloodshed in Kansas before Section 6, and The Lincoln-Douglas Debates before Section 8. Ask these questions for each image: What details do you see in this image? What do you think is happening here? Cite evidence from the image. Do you think the event depicted here might keep the nation together or pull it apart? Why? Add Characters to Act-It-Out 2 Expand the list of characters on Student Handout 21 by adding Northerner, Southerner, and Charles Sumner. Have groups that are assigned one of these added characters use the questions below to prepare. During the act-it-out, have these students remain seated. After interviewing the actors in the image, move into the audience and randomly call on students to answer the questions below from the perspective of their characters. What is your opinion of the recent events in Kansas? Explain. What is your opinion of other political events such as the Fugitive Slave Act, the Ostend Manifesto, and the Kansas-Nebraska Act? Explain. Have you read Uncle Toms Cabin? What do you think of its message? Create an Illustrated Timeline Have students create a timeline on a large sheet of paper that contains a summary sentence for each of the major events from the lesson. Tell students to organize the information by placing events that kept the nation together on one side of the timeline and events that pulled the nation apart on the other. Also have them create a small illustration or symbol to represent each event.

Reading Further: Slavery Divides Boston

1 Have students read the first portion of the lesson's Reading Further. Ask the class to speculate why Anthony Burns was being returned to slavery and why people were so upset. 2 Have students finish the reading. Point out that, in addition to increasing the conflict between North and South and between abolitionists and others, the Fugitive Slave Act overruled the state antislavery law.

3 Discuss how laws affect our lives. Ask, How did the Fugitive Slave Act change the lives of escaped slaves? Of Northerners? Point out that laws are not simply words on paper, but can influence our lives in powerful ways. Ask students to name some laws that affect their lives. 4 Ask students to compare Boston as a center of abolition with Boston, a century earlier. Point out the quotation from William Lloyd Garrison and ask, How did William Lloyd Garrison link the two periods? 5 Have students complete the lesson's Reading Further in their Interactive Student Notebooks. Invite students to share their handbills with the class.