Essential Question: Why did Americans wage the Civil War?
The first three lessons set the stage for the rising sectional tensions over slavery between the North and the South. While Lesson 1 introduces scholars to the broad impact of the Civil War, Lessons 2 and 3 demonstrate how national expansion triggered increased divisions among Americans and how the nation tried to deal with these sectional tensions. By the end of these lessons, scholars will be prepared to examine how Americans responded to compromise and why sectional tensions continued to deepen.
Lesson 1: The Significance of the Civil War (Source Analysis)
- Central Question: Why was the Civil War significant in American history?
Lesson 2: Manifest Destiny and the Mexican-American War (Source Analysis)
- Central Question: Why did the United States declare war on Mexico?
Lesson 3: The Compromise of 1850 (Simulation)
- Central Question: Why did Congress pass the Compromise of 1850?
Lessons 4 through 8 develop scholars’ understanding of the deepening sectional divide over slavery between the North and the South. Lessons 4 through 6 illustrate how Americans responded to congressional compromises and explains why many Americans refused to accept any compromise over slavery. These lessons build up to Lessons 7 and 8 and Southern secession. By the end of Lesson 8, scholars will be able to explain how sectional tensions over slavery ultimately led to the secession of the South and laid the groundwork for the Civil War.
Lesson 4: Abolition in the 1850s (Jigsaw)
- Central Question: How did abolitionists influence national opinions about slavery?
Lesson 5: Sectional Tensions Rise (Source Analysis)
- Central Question: To what extent was the Compromise of 1850 successful?
Lesson 6: The Rise of Abraham Lincoln (Source Analysis)
- Central Question: Why did Abraham Lincoln rise to become the leader of the new Republican party?
Lessons 7–8: Southern Secession (Source Analysis, Exit Ticket Revision)
- Central Question: Why did the South secede?
Lessons 9 through 11 introduce scholars to both the experiences of Americans during the Civil War and why the meaning of the war began to evolve from a war to save the Union to a war to end slavery by 1863. While Lesson 9 focuses especially on the horrors of the Civil War for Americans, Lesson 10 illustrates this evolving meaning of the war for the Union. Lesson 11 unites both of these ideas to explain how, by adopting the abolition of slavery as its “cause,” the Union changed the tide of the war at Gettysburg.
Lesson 9: The Civil War (Jigsaw)
- Central Question: How did different groups of Americans experience the Civil War?
Lesson 10: The Emancipation Proclamation (Source Analysis)
- Central Question: Why did President Lincoln issue the Emancipation Proclamation?
Lesson 11: Gettysburg (Source Analysis)
- Central Question: Why was the Battle of Gettysburg a turning point in the Civil War?
Lessons 12 through 14 illustrate the consequences of the previous lessons and how this shift in in the focus of the war gave the Union a restored momentum, leading to a Union victory and the permanent abolition of slavery. Lessons 12 and 13 explain why the passage of the 13th Amendment was essential both for the rights and dignity of African Americans, but also to the fate of the Union cause. Scholars will understand by the end of Lesson 13 the instrumental role Lincoln, as well as many senators and congressmen, played in passing the amendment. By the end of Lesson 14, scholars should be able to explain how all three Big Ideas of Unit 1 ultimately contributed to a Union victory in the Civil War.
Lessons 12–14: Lincoln and the 13th Amendment (Video Analysis, Exit Ticket Revision)
- Central Question: Why did Lincoln fight to pass the 13th Amendment before the end of the Civil War?
Lesson 15: The End of the War (Source Analysis)
- Central Question: Why did the Union win the Civil War?