Civil War Quiz: What Do You Know About The South’s Reasons For Secession?

Q#1 – During the election in 1860, Abraham Lincoln ran on a message of leaving slavery to where it currently existed, which should have been viewed by Southerners in a positive way. What were the two reasons Southerners still did not vote for Lincoln?

Q#2 – What was the legal basis by which Southern states believed that they had the right to secede from the United States?

Q#3 – What was the complaint by Southern states regarding the Fugitive Slave Act of 1850?

Q#4 – There were some inconsistencies among the Southern states regarding the reasons they included in their individual ordinances of secession. Three states—Texas, Alabama, and Virginia—specifically mentioned one obvious condition; the rest made no mention it; what was the condition?

Q#5 – What was the prevailing belief among the Southern states that slaveholding was a constitutional right and that the movement to abolish slavery and that movement’s influence over the politics of the northern states justified secession?

Q#6 – In the Texas Ordinance of Secession there was condition unique to that state that did not exist in the other Southern states, which Texas believed was another reason that justified secession. What was that condition?

Q#7 – The Supreme Court 1857 Dred Scott decision in effect declared unconstitutional one critical requirement of the 1820 Missouri compromise that the Federal government refused to honor. What was that requirement that was declared unconstitutional?

Q#8 – What was the adverse political impact regarding prohibiting slavery in the new western territories that was another reason justifying secession by the Southern states?

Q#9 – What was a main reason that the Southern states thought that if their secession from the Union led to civil war, France and Britain would intervene on their behalf?

Q#10 – There was a last ditch effort to end the secession crisis through a Constitutional amendment. What was the effort and its result?

Q#11 – How did the “Homestead Act” of 1860 serve as another reason for Southern states to secede from the Union?

Q#12 – How did the Pacific Railway Bill of 1860 provide additional justification for the South to secede from the Union?

Q#13 – Why were the implementation of tariffs one of the root causes that Southerners used to justify secession?

Q#14 – Why was the effort to create a system of banks that would be chartered and regulated by the federal government a reason Southern states believed helped to justify secession?

Q#15 – While most states in the Confederacy simply passed Ordinances of Secession, South Carolina, Georgia, Mississippi, Texas, and Virginia included what other justifications in their ordinances?