Paper2-Secession

History 17B De Anza College

Paper #2: Secession

What caused the Civil War? Read your textbook about the role of expansionism and slavery in stoking sectionalist conflicts in the decades before the Civil War. Consider the political changes that occurred in the 1840s and 50s leading up to the presidential election of 1860. Then examine the arguments for and against secession that are linked below. Why did the southern states secede? Why did they think they were legally entitled to do so? How does the article in De Bow’s Review justify slavery? How did Abraham Lincoln respond to southern claims that secession was justified?

De Bow’s Review, “The Southern Confederacy: Our Cause before the Civilized World”

J.H. Hammond, "Slavery in the Light of Political Science"

President Lincoln’s Speech before a Special Session of Congress

Declaration of the Immediate Causes Which Induce and Justify the Secession of South Carolina from the Federal Union

Use examples from the documents to explain your answer.

You must cite your sources, and list them at the end of your paper as a List of References. Please do not “borrow” material from the web without providing proper citations and enclosing direct quotations in quotation marks. Otherwise, it will be considered plagiarism, and the penalties will be severe.

Typed, double-spaced, 12-point type, 800-1000 words, formatted according to MLA standards, and to be submitted to Turnitin.com. (For aid on formatting, see the Purdue Owl Website.) Note: before sending the assignment, please rename the file in the following format: LastnameFirstname-paper1.doc. Example: JacksonChristopher-paper1.doc. That allows me to better keep track of the many papers that I received during the quarter.