ASSIGNMENT 1:
Sources:
  • textbook --> 374 - 383 [incl. the doc. on pp. 382-3].
  • AMSCO --> pp. 170 - 173;  doc. A on p. 180.
Terms :
* Antebellum Period * Nat Turner
* Edmund Ruffin * Underground Railroad
* "Peculiar Institution" * Harriet Tubman
* customary rights * "Sambo" image
* Gabriel Prosser * George Fitzhugh
* Denmark Vesey  
Questions:
  1. Identify the states of the Upper South and those of the Border South.
  2. Why was the Upper South not suitable for raising short staple cotton?
  3. What was Edmund Ruffin's contribution to promoting agricultural reform in the Upper South?
  4. Describe the economic adjustment of the Upper South during the first half of the 19c.  How did that adjustment impact both the industrial and agricultural sectors of the economy?
  5. Why did the slave population decline in the Upper South during the first half of the 19c?
  6. Identify the different "classes" among the slave population.
  7. How did slavery in cities differ from slavery on the plantation?
  8. What were the characteristics of family life in the slave communities of the antebellum South?
  9. Describe African Christianity and explain its distinctions from white Protestant Christianity.
  10. Create a CHART that shows the three major slave rebellions that took place during the antebellum period.  Include comments on the success or failure of each.
  11. What overall effects did these slave rebellions have on the white population of the South?  of the North?
  12. What was the meaning of the Underground Railroad?  What was its connection to the issue of slave resistance?
 

                          ASSIGNMENT 2:
Sources:
  • textbook --> pp. 383 - 392.
  • AMSCO --> docs. B-D on pp. 181 - 183.
Terms :
* "cavalier" image * Review of the Debates in
  the Virginia Legislature of
  1831 and 1832
* oligarchy * Hinton Rowan Helper
* mulatto * Impending Crisis of the
  South
* Thomas R. Dew * Slave Codes
Questions:
  1. What groups made up the planter aristocracy?  Why did their influence far exceed their numbers?
  2. What was the "cavalier" image?  How were southern planters able to create it?
  3. How was the role played by affluent southern white women different from their northern counterparts?
  4. If the typical white southerner was not a great planter, what was he?  What was life like for southern "plain folk?"
  5. Why did so few non-slaveholding whites oppose the slaveholding oligarchy?
  6. What was life like for free blacks?  How was freedom gained?  What were their opportunities once free?
  7. What were the Black Codes?  How were they used to preserve racial inequity in the South?
  8. Identify the major points of the pro-slavery argument.  What impact did religion have on the institution of slavery?  What was the impact of slavery on religious institutions, especially in the South?