The American Vision © 2011 Virginia Edition

Unit 3: The Crisis of Union 1848-1877

Historical Thinking Activities

Assignment: Examine the Causes of the Civil War
The Civil War was a defining moment in the history of the United States. This event's importance is so crucial to the nation's identity that most histories of the United States treat the Civil War as a dividing point between what the nation once was and what the nation later become. Many factors contributed to the outbreak of the war. Follow the steps below to review primary sources, and then use those sources to write an essay that explains the causes of the Civil War.

Assignment Task List
Step 1: Review how to analyze primary sources. See "Analyzing Primary Sources" on page R19 of the Skills Handbook in The American Vision.

Step 2: Read primary sources related to each of these causes. Select two or more of the primary sources to use as source material to write your essay, or conduct a library or Internet search to find primary sources relevant to this topic.

PDF Sources:

Dred Scott v. Sandford: The Ruling and Reactions (24.0K)

The Lincoln-Douglas Debates (14.0K)

The Republican Party Platform of 1860 (16.0K)

The Democratic Party Platform of 1860 (11.0K)

South Carolina Declaration of Causes of Secession (22.0K)

Abraham Lincoln, First Inaugural Address (18.0K)

Internet Sources for Images about Slavery and the Slavery Debate:

The Atlantic Slave Trade and Slave Life in the Americas: A Visual Record
http://hitchcock.itc.virginia.edu/Slavery/index.php

Images of African-American Slavery and Freedom from the Library of Congress
http://www.loc.gov/rr/print/list/082_slave.html

Digital Schomburg Images—Slavery
Images of 19th Century African Americans
http://digital.nypl.org/cgi-shl/vsc30b.exe/schomburg/images_aa19/toc.html?E+nyplbeta

Step 3: Analyze the sources to determine the main argument or arguments put forth in each source.

Step 4: Determine the point of view of the author of each primary source.

Step 5: Write the essay. Interpret two or more of the primary sources. In your essay, you should first explain the point of view and main argument(s) of each writer. Then, based on that analysis, you should draw a conclusion that answers the question: From the point of view of each writer, why was the Civil War fought?

Step 6: Review your work against the checklist below. Have you included all elements of a well-written essay? Revise your essay as needed.