The Expansion of Slavery

Understanding why the expansion of the United States is key to understanding causes of the Civil War can be difficult for students. This political map and the chart below can help.

Reynolds’s Political Map of the United States (1856)

Spiraling Questions

Descriptive Questions:

When was this map published?

What do the different colors mean?

Interpretive Questions:

What is the Missouri Compromise Line and why is it highlighted?

What could happen if the Missouri Compromise was repealed?

Analytical Questions:

Why do you think this map was published?

Expanding the Federation Chart

Spiraling Questions

Descriptive Questions:

Using the Reynold’s Map and the chart, trace with your finger the admissions of each State beginning with Kentucky in 1790. What direction does your finger travel?

What do the numbers in each box mean?

Interpretive Questions:

Why were the states admitted as sets?

Look at the newspaper notice below the chart. What does it mean to have a “free soil” platform?

Analytical Questions:

Who had more power by the 1850s? North or South?

Why would the creation of the Republican party threaten the South?