Crossroads: High School Curriculum
Unit VI: "Now We Are Engaged in a Great Civil War": 1848-1880

Lesson 2

Major Concepts

Objectives

Suggested lesson/activities

From the 1780s to the 1850s, politicians hammered out a series of compromises among the sections that preserved the Union and delayed the outbreak of civil war, but in the 1850s efforts to use compromise to stave off civil war became increasingly desperate and ineffective.

Objectives: The student will be able to:

Use primary sources to defend a position during political debate.

Suggested lesson/activities:

The teacher is referred to Unit IV, Lesson Four for the use of role play as a vehicle for studying the history of compromise.

1. One at a time, in chronological order, ask the groups to proceed as follows:
   1. Identify the issue.

   2. Argue your respective positions.

   3. Follow the rule that no group wants the nation to break up.

   4. Reach a compromise that satisfies everyone sufficiently.

2. Present a concise outline of the actual compromises and ask the class to draw conclusions about the status of sectional tensions as the nation approached the 1860s.