← Back

Chapter 14: Troubled Times: the Tumultuous 1850s

Every problem in the chapter beside the book’s answer, a chapter at a time as you scroll.

Chapter 14: Troubled Times: the Tumultuous 1850s

6 problems · 0 figures

14-1 §14.1 source ↗

What was President Zachary Taylor’s top priority as president?
  1. a.
    preserving the Union
  2. b.
    ensuring the recapture of escaped enslaved people
  3. c.
    expanding slavery
  4. d.
    enlarging the state of Texas

Answer

A. preserving the Union

14-3 §14.1 source ↗

Why did many in the North resist the Fugitive Slave Act?

Answer

This federal law appeared to northerners to be further proof of a “Slave Power” conspiracy and elite slaveholders’ disproportionate influence over U.S. domestic policy. Northerners also resented being compelled to serve as de facto slave-catchers, as the law punished people not only for helping escaped enslaved people, but also for failing to aid in efforts to return them. Finally, the law rankled many northerners for the hypocrisy that it exposed, given southerners’ arguments in favor of states’ rights and against the federal government’s meddling in their affairs.

14-5 §14.2 source ↗

Border ruffians helped to ________.
  1. a.
    chase abolitionists out of Missouri
  2. b.
    elect a proslavery legislature in Kansas
  3. c.
    capture escaped enslaved people
  4. d.
    disseminate abolitionist literature in Kansas

Answer

B. elect a proslavery legislature in Kansas

14-7 §14.3 source ↗

On what grounds did Dred Scott sue for freedom?
  1. a.
    the inherent inhumanity of slavery
  2. b.
    the cruelty of his enslaver
  3. c.
    the fact that he had lived in free states
  4. d.
    the fact that his family would be torn apart

Answer

C. the fact that he had lived in free states

14-9 §14.3 source ↗

What are the main points of the Dred Scott decision?

Answer

The Supreme Court decided that Dred Scott had not earned freedom by virtue of having lived in a free state; thus, Scott and his family would remain enslaved. More broadly, the Court ruled that Black people could never be citizens of the United States and that Congress had no authority to stop or limit the spread of slavery into American territories.

14-11 §14.4 source ↗

Which of the following did not contribute to Lincoln’s victory in the election of 1860?
  1. a.
    the split between northern and southern Democrats
  2. b.
    the defeat of the Whig party
  3. c.
    Lincoln’s improved national standing after his senatorial debates with Stephen Douglas
  4. d.
    the Constitutional Union party’s further splintering the vote

Answer

B. the defeat of the Whig party

Loading chapter 15…

Problems and answers are adapted from U.S. History by P. Scott Corbett, Volker Janssen, John M. Lund, Todd Pfannestiel, Sylvie Waskiewicz and Paul Vickery, OpenStax, and are used under the CC BY-NC-SA 4.0 licence. Access for free at https://openstax.org/books/us-history/pages/1-introduction. Illustrations: Copyright Rice University, OpenStax, under CC BY-NC-SA 4.0 license. This adaptation is released under the same licence, is non-commercial, and is neither affiliated with nor endorsed by OpenStax or Rice University.