1. A House Divided Focus Questions:
What was the significance of Bleeding Sumner?
What issues did the nation face after the Mexican-American War and how did leaders attempt to solve those issues?
What impact did the Kansas-Nebraska Act have?
What was the outcome of the Dred Scott decision?
Describe the impact of John Brown’s raid on Harpers Ferry.
Discuss the Election of 1860 and its outcome.
Identify the events leading up to the firing on Fort Sumter and its importance.
The purpose of the focus questions is to help students find larger themes and structures to bring the historical evidence, events, and examples together for a connected thematic purpose.
As we go through each portion of this lecture, you may want to keep in mind how the information relates to this larger thematic question. Here are some suggestions: write the focus question in the left or right margin on your notes and as we go through, either mark areas of your notes for you to come back to later and think about the connection OR as you review your notes later (to fill in anything else you remember from the lecture or your thoughts during the lecture or additional information from the readings), write small phrases from the lecture and readings that connect that information to each focus question AND/OR are examples that work together to answer the focus question.

2. Bleeding Sumner

3. Problems Sparked by the Mexican War
●Wilmot Proviso
●Calhoun’s opposition
●Popular sovereignty

4. Election of 1848

6. Further Sectional Issues
●Kansas-Nebraska Act: 1854
●Battle for Kansas: “Bleeding Kansas”
-Pottawatomie Massacre

7. The Dred Scott vs. Sanford: 1857

8. John Brown’s raid at Harper’s Ferry: October 16, 1859

9. Election of 1860 Abraham Lincoln John C. Breckinridge John Bell
Stephen A. Douglas

10. Map 5

12. ●Buchanan’s reactions ●Federal property in seceded South ●Lincoln’s efforts to compromise

13. Fort Sumter: April 12, 1861
P. G. T. Beauregard
Major Robert Anderson