Causes of the  Civil War:  Document-Based Questions

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DIRECTIONS: This task is based on the accompanying documents (1- 5). Some of these documents have been edited for the purpose of the task. The task is designed to test your ability to work with historical documents. As you analyze the documents, take into account both the source of the document and the author's point of view. For part A, look at each document and answer the questions after each document. For part B, use your answers to the questions to help write a well-organized essay.

HISTORICAL CONTEXT:

After the Constitution was adopted by all of the States in 1789, uniting the States into one nation, differences between the States had been worked out through compromises. For more than 30 years arguments between the North and South had been growing. By 1861 these differences between the Northern States (which included the Mid-Western and Western States) and the Southern States had become so great that compromise would no longer work. Thus, a conflict started within our nation that was called the Civil War (1861-1865).

TASK: Most historians agree that the Civil War was caused by series of events and growing differences between the States. Write an essay explaining three reasons the Southern states seceded (withdrew) from the Union which lead to the American Civil War.