Slavery and Sectionalism
How a cotton machine entrenched slavery instead of ending it, and the chain of compromises that finally ran out.
6 topics · 19 questions
Each topic is a path, not a menu: work down it in order and every question builds on the one above. Click any of them to watch the answer draw itself.
The Cotton Gin and the Second Slavery
- How it worksWalk me through how Eli Whitney's 1793 cotton gin sped up cleaning cotton and made growing it far more profitable.
- How it worksHow does more profitable cotton push the plantation system and enslaved population westward into Alabama and Mississippi?
- Common mistakeWhy isn't it true that the cotton gin was expected to make slavery fade out over time?
Your turn1 of 2
Eli Whitney's 1793 cotton gin sped up the slow, hand-done work of separating cotton fibers from their seeds, making cotton far more profitable to grow. Why did a labor-saving machine end up expanding slavery across the South instead of shrinking it?The Domestic Slave Trade and Enslaved Population Growth
- How it worksWalk me through how the domestic slave trade forcibly moved enslaved families from the Upper South to the Deep South.
- Worked exampleShow me the enslaved population climbing from about 700,000 in 1790 to nearly 4 million by 1860.
- Going furtherWhat happens to an enslaved family once the cotton boom makes selling its members south more profitable than keeping them.
Your turn1 of 2
The enslaved population of the United States grew from about 719642 in 1790 to nearly 3994698 by 1860. About what percentage did the enslaved population grow over that period?The Abolition Movement
- How it worksHow did Frederick Douglass's escape from slavery turn him into the movement's most persuasive voice?
- Common mistakeWhy isn't the Underground Railroad an actual railroad rather than a secret network of routes and helpers?
- How it worksShow me the network of routes and safe houses that made up the Underground Railroad running north.
Your turn1 of 2
The same decades that saw cotton profits driving slavery's rapid expansion across the South also saw the abolition movement grow louder and more organized in the North. Why did the movement to end slavery grow loudest exactly when slavery was expanding fastest?The Compromise of 1850
- How it worksShow me the Compromise of 1850's five parts balancing California's statehood against a stronger fugitive slave law.
- How it worksHow did the Fugitive Slave Act force Northerners who opposed slavery to help capture escaped enslaved people?
- Going furtherWhat happens to Northern public opinion once the Fugitive Slave Act starts getting enforced in Northern cities.
Your turn1 of 2
In 1850, California applied to join the Union as a free state, with no slave state ready to pair with it the way Missouri and Maine had been paired decades earlier. Why did that threaten to break apart Congress?Bleeding Kansas and the Dred Scott Decision
- How it worksShow me pro-slavery and antislavery settlers both racing into Kansas after the 1854 Kansas-Nebraska Act.
- How it worksWalk me through how the 1857 Dred Scott decision ruled that Congress couldn't ban slavery in the territories at all.
- Going furtherWhat happens to the Missouri Compromise line the moment the Supreme Court declares it unconstitutional in Dred Scott.
Your turn1 of 2
The 1854 Kansas-Nebraska Act let settlers in the new territories vote on whether to allow slavery there, a principle called popular sovereignty. Why did organizing two territories this way turn Kansas into a small civil war?The Election of 1860 and Secession
- How it worksShow me the map of secession spreading state by state from South Carolina in December 1860 through mid-1861.
- Common mistakeWhy isn't Lincoln's 1860 platform actually a call to abolish slavery where it already existed?
- How it worksHow did a four-way split in the Democratic Party hand Lincoln the electoral college with under 40 percent of the vote?
- Ties togetherHow does the secession map from the election of 1860 become the literal battle map once the Civil War begins?
Your turn1 of 2
In the 1860 presidential election, a four-way split in the vote let Lincoln win about 184 of the 305 electoral votes with under 40 percent of the popular vote. About what percentage of the electoral college did Lincoln win?