Chapter 13: Sectional Conflict And Shattered Union, 1850 - 1861

After reading this chapter, you should be able to do the following:

1. Identify the issues that shaped public opinion during the early 1850s and analyze their impact on the nation’s political party system.
   
   
2. Explain the expectations for the Kansas-Nebraska Act and the reactions of various groups to the legislation.
   
   
3. Analyze the election of 1860 in terms of the deep division of opinion within the United States over slavery and chart the course of events that led afterward to secession.
   
   
4. Describe the choices available to Abraham Lincoln and Jefferson Davis in March 1861.