History Discussion Questions (#2)

IV. Discussion Questions: Please respond to a total of two (2) questions [one each from parts one and two], as instructed below, and post them on this week's Discussion Forum 

Part I. Please answer the following question fully.

1. What was the impact of John Brown's raid on Harper's Ferry in 1859? Was he a hero, villain, or madman, as he was sometimes been called?

Part II. Select one (1) of the following questions and answer fully.

2. From the time of the nation's founding up to threshold of the Civil War, slavery had been discussed, debated, and was a subject of compromise. And in the 19th century the expansion of slavery caused the greatest tensions between North and South. Why? Consider such milestones as the Missouri Compromise; the Compromise of 1850; the Kansas-Nebraska Act; and the Dred Scott Decision.

 3. The entire 1850s decade was like a march to war. Identify and briefly explain some of the major activities and issues [including ideologies] during that time that finally brought the nation to war. How big a role did slavery play?

4. How did African Americans and white southerners react to the election of Abraham Lincoln as president in 1860? Why did seven states secede from the Union within three months afterwards? What was the African American reaction--Frederick Douglass in particular?