In our reading this week, we learned about the United States’ ideology of Manifest Destiny, and the territorial gains which resulted from it: Texas, California, and the American southwest. As these new territories are settled, a great debate reverberates throughout the nation: will these new areas be slave states or free-labor states.
Here are your discussion questions:
Is there a direct connection between Manifest Destiny and the American Civil War? Explain.
Based on Lincoln’s speech in 1854, did he agree with the Kansas-Nebraska Act? Did he agree that slavery should continue to spread into newly developed territories?
At what point did the Civil War become inevitable? Explain.