Slavery and Abolition --Spring 2018
Questions Set C
Tues. Apr 3: Wilberforce the Evangelical
(Tompkins, chs. 1-8)
1. What are three or four attributes that account for Wilberforce's
rapid rise in politics?
2. What makes Wilberforce different from most other members of
Parliament?
3. What effect does antislavery literature have on Wilberforce before
1786?
*4. In what ways are Wilberforce's two campaigns, reformation of manners
and abolition of the slave trade, similar?
*5. Besides the economic costs, what were two common arguments in favor
of the slave trade, and Wilberforce's answer to each?
Thurs, Apr 5: Abolition of the Slave Trade
(Tompkins, chs. 9-16)
6. Assess the strengths and weaknesses of abolition politics between
1787 and 1792. What resources did the movement have in their favor, and
what forces stood in their way? Why was abolition defeated?
*7. What factors were driving Wilberforce and Pitt apart in
1797-99?
8. What other proposals, besides straight abolition, did
Wilberforce and his allies pursue in the five years leading up to abolition of
the trade?
*9. What things needed to happen in order for abolition finally to
pass after 18 years of trying? Name at least three developments.
Thurs, Apr 12: American Abolitionism
10. What was the key theological principle of abolitionism?
*11. What are two points of contrast between British and American abolitionism? [This theme comes up in several places].
*12. How did black abolitionists transform the movement in the 1820s?
13. What forces acted against the abolitionist movement in American society?
14. Davis�s overarching theme in this chapter is that abolitionism involved a moral conflict between what two fundamental values in American life?
Tuesday, Apr 17:
American Politics
15. What two great principles governed American foreign policy between the revolution and the Civil War?
*16. What characterizes the pattern of political compromises over slavery in the early nineteenth century?
*17. Given their political strength, why did Southerners overreact to Northern criticisms of the South in the 1830s and 40s?
18. In what ways was Lincoln�s �House Divided� speech a turning point in American political history?
19. Ironically, both northern Republicans and extreme pro-slavery advocates agreed on what key point?
Tuesday, Apr 19: Civil
War
*20. The theme of this chapter is the �revolutionary meaning� of the Civil War. What was revolutionary about the war?
21. Why might it be said that Robert E. Lee destroyed slavery?
22. What was the North�s �lost cause?�
*23. What was the symbolic significance of the 1913 commemoration of the 50th anniversary of Gettysburg?
24. Offer three arguments that Lincoln deserves the title of �Great Emancipator�
25. Offer two arguments why the Civil War was about slavery, not something else.